Francisco Vázquez de Coronado at Doubtful Canyon and on the Trail North
The 2011 Report Including Lead Isotopes, Artifact Interpretation, and Camp Description

The Spaniards tell that Capt. García López de Cárdenas, maestre de campo of the advance party of the Coronado Expedition, with his small force of expeditionaries, reached the boulders in the Rio Zuni above Ceadro Spring at Dangerous Pass for the second time late on the Julian Tuesday of 6 July 1540. The force had first been sent there by Capt. Gen. Francisco Vázquez de Coronado to reconnoiter and report, and, based on what he heard, Coronado sent García López back to stand guard while the advance party remained camped at Río Bermejo. Under the cover of darkness enhanced by a nearly new moon, after a quarter of the second watch had passed, about a hundred warriors from Cíbola attacked the García López force. The warriors shot arrows into some of the horses and turned others loose. After the startled Spaniards had mounted their steeds, they drove the warriors away from Dangerous Pass. A messenger immediately galloped away to the Río Bermejo camp to apprise Coronado of what had happened. The brief skirmish resulted in García López later reporting that the Hawikku warriors "attacked like courageous men." In describing the reaction of the Spaniards, chronicler Pedro de Castañeda de Nájera, not an eye witness, was bluntly harsh, reporting that some surprised soldiers were so disoriented that they put their saddles on backwards.

The following morning Coronado and most of his starving, fatigued troops moved out in the best order they could, heading toward Hawikku, periodically seeing smoke clouds alerting the warriors of the Spaniard's location. Once the invading "Men-in-metal" army reached the expansive flats southwest of Hawikku, Coronado dispatched Capts. García López and Melchior Pérez, friars Juan de Padilla, Luis de Úbeda, and Daniel, scribe Hernando Bermejo, and some horsemen as an advance group with orders to deliver the revered requerimeinto. Fray Marcos de Niza did not accompany the clerics because he was cloistered in protective custody to safeguard him from the likelihood of receiving an intentionally stray arquebus ball shot by one of the many expeditionaries angered by his false reports. After seeing that the advance group was welcomed by nothing but flying arrows, Coronado, bearing trade goods and accompanied by some horsemen, joined García López and the others at a location about a crossbow shot distance from Hawikku. The gilded metal man and the gray robes failed to engender homage from the warriors. During the second reading of the requerimeinto, the captains and the clerics were confronted by several hundred homeland defenders bearing shields and weapons who threw dirt and stones at the Men-in-metal, and who marked lines on the ground to declare a boundary not to cross, and who sent a hail of arrows into the invaders, wounding horses and piercing the robe of one of the friars.

The Men-in-metal responded with a treble-phased attack. Mounted lancers first charged the defenders, who retreated into the walled pueblo of Hawikku, empty of women and children, all of whom had been evacuated to safety days before. Then the invaders approached the stone slab walls and again shouted the obligatory requerimeinto, all the while ducking arrows shot by the defenders atop Hawikku roofs. When the Men-in-metal rushed afoot to scale the walls, they were met by a barrage of rocks and arrows. The invader's crossbows proved ineffective because their bastard strings broke when distracted ballesteros hurried to cock their bows during the fracas, and their arquebuses proved too cumbersome to use in such close quarters. Repulsed by the homeland defenders, the Men-in-metal backed away from the walls and bombarded the pueblo with crossbow and arquebus projectiles. During the salvo of metal arrows and lead shot, the defenders cleverly slipped away from Hawikku in a planned retreat from the invaders.

The Captain General presented himself in flamboyant battle attire that 7 July 1540 day. His groom, Juan de Contreras, who lived inside Coronado's New Spain house and who ate with him, and who slept at the door to Coronado's tent, dressed the Captain General in brilliant, golden armor and with a fancy plume on his helmet. In this eye-catching habiliment, Coronado naturally became a marked man as he led the charge into Hawikku. After twice being knocked down by stone slabs slung by the defenders, Coronado was finally rendered inoperative when a sharp rock smacked him off a ladder as he tried to reach the flat roofs. The strike decorated his feathered helmet with a jagged dent and left him unconscious. The Capt. Gen. was hauled away and placed in a tent for about three hours, during which time befell the excitement of the light artillery fusillade and victorious seizure of Hawikku. Coronado suffered stone wounds on his head, shoulders, and legs, two facial gashes, and an arrow puncture in his right foot. His greatest trauma, however, was subsequent and emotional, when he realized that lying supine and unconscious in an improvised field hospital, he had missed the drama of the triumph at Cíbola. (1)

In addition to providing colorful history, the battle at Hawikku produced lead shot discharged from arquebuses. These nondescript artifacts contain isotope codes that can be measured and interpreted to predict the source of the lead used to mold the shot. I will show that the atomic signature of those little lead balls left at Hawikku and other locations mark the trail traveled by Coronado and his invaders.

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Since September 2004, I have devoted my time almost exclusively to exploration for evidence of the 1540 – 1542 route of the expedition of Capt. Gen. Francisco Vázquez de Coronado between the international border with Mexico and Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico. During this time I formed an exploration team that remains active and experienced at the time of this writing. Three reports describing my team's methods and findings have been previously published by the New Mexico Historical Review. (2) This fourth report provides an account of the exploration program that is current to June 2010 Being that this paper will focus on new information, interested readers are encouraged to refer to the earlier publications as antecedent material.

Lead Isotope Ratio Analysis

My 2009 report recommended that lead isotope ratios be obtained for four lead balls discovered at Kuykendall Ruins, and that these ratios be compared to ratios from lead shot found at other accepted or proposed Coronado sites. In 2010 I reported that geochemist Franco Marcantonio at the Radiogenic Isotope Geochemistry Laboratory in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Texas A&M University used Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry (TIMS) to measure isotopes of lead shot from the suggested Coronado sites of Kuykendall Ruins (Chichilticale), Doubtful Canyon (Advance Party Camp 23 June 1540), Hawikku-Kyakima (Cíbola), and Jimmy Owens (the great hailstorm site in Blanco Canyon, Texas), and that I added to the dataset the isotope ratios presented by Charles M. Haecker for two lead shot found at the proposed Coronado site of Piedras Marcadas Pueblo in Tiguex (LA 290, Mann-Zuris site). In total the team measured or examined twenty-seven lead shot – four from Kuykendall Ruins, thirteen from Doubtful Canyon, four from Hawikku-Kyakima, four from Jimmy Owens, and two from Piedras Marcadas. Using published data I assembled a database of worldwide isotope ratios against which to compare my measurements. Following several robust statistical and visual analyses, the team determined that these twenty-seven shot were composed of lead from Spain, the Middle New World (herein defined as modern Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean Islands), and the United States.

Of intriguing interest was that shot composed of Spanish lead sources were present at all five proposed Coronado camps. Written evidence supports firearms and their use by the Coronado Expedition. On 22 February 1540 in Compostela, "the muster was made of all the people going [with Capt. Gen. Francisco Vázquez de Coronado] to the land newly discovered." I counted twenty-six arquebuses in this muster. In addition to arquebuses fired at the battle of Hawikku, Pedro de Castañeda de Nájera reported that firing of these weapons occurred at the fracas on the Río del Tizón (Colorado River) where "the arquebusiers also were making good shots," and at the siege of Tiguex where Spaniards were "making good shots with arquebuses." Given the motive, means and opportunity for shot to be a product of the expedition, my team interpreted Spanish lead as representing a nexus among these five otherwise disparate locations, with the Coronado Trail being the common thread connecting all the sites. Moreover, I concluded that Spanish lead found within specific geographical corridors is diagnostic of the Coronado Expedition. Table 1 provides isotope ratios for ten lead shot my team determined were from Spanish source locations. Because my findings are best presented in colored, three-dimensional graphics, interested readers should view the methodology and supportive evidence contained in the section of this website titled "Lead Isotope Ratio Analysis.". (3)

The Captain General in Doubtful Canyon

My team found thirteen lead balls in Doubtful Canyon. Table 1 shows that five of these shot are composed of Spanish lead. I consider this Spanish shot to represent substantive members of the evidential body supporting the discovery of a Coronado campsite in that canyon. This discovery was predicted – my original exploration model of Coronado's route included his passage through Doubtful Canyon.

Compelled by my model, I obtained exploration permission from the private landowners and began a handheld metal detector search on the Mary Honorhea Braidfoot homestead at the western end of the canyon in February 2005. On 9 March 2005, about ten months before initiating exploration at Kuykendall Ruins, I discovered lead shot ID number Doubtful Canyon CZ, which was later shown to be composed of Spanish lead. (See Table 1) This was the only artifact of interest found during my few and brief 2005 metal detector searches of the western canyon. In January 2006 my team began exploration at Kuykendall Ruins, thereby holding in abeyance any further activity at Doubtful Canyon. (4)

Three years later, in January 2009, four veterans of Kuykendall Ruins exploration conducted a Blennert sled search of a portion of the eastern end of the canyon on the Fred and Vera Braidfoot homestead, at a unique spot called Tsisl-Inoni-bi-yi-tu, which in the Apache language means "Rock-white-in-water." This locale is appropriately named because geological conditions there cause white, impervious rhyolite lava (ignimbrite) to outcrop in Doubtful Arroyo, creating surface bedrock and forcing water to spring, resulting in white rocks in spring water. I had recognized the site in 2005, when my field exploration had discovered a series of six widely spaced piles of white signal stones aligned to indicate an extinct trail from Lyall Pass on the north side of Doubtful Canyon to Doubtful Arroyo. This triumvirate of favorable geological conditions for water, signal stones marking a trail, and an Apache place name recognizing the waterhole, suggested an old, reliable and well-known fountain, one suitable for the Coronado Expedition and worthy of exploring for signs of the Captain General. (5)

The team's January 2009 Blennert sledding at Rock-white-in-water resulted in the discovery of twelve lead shot, four of which were subsequently identified by isotope analysis as being composed of lead from a Spanish source location. Closely associated with three of these Spanish lead shot (Doubtful Canyon 3, 9, 10) the team found seven wrought iron nails. These were sent to the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, where collections specialist James B. Legg examined the pieces and reported their similarities in form, function and craftsmanship with sixteenth-century Santa Elena nails. The Doubtful Canyon nails also showed these similarities to nails found at Bayahá, a sixteenth-century settlement in modern Haiti. Figures are numbered upper left (1) to lower right (6). Figs. 1-5 illustrate comparisons between Doubtful Canyon and Santa Elena nails. Fig. 6 compares Doubtful Canyon and Bayahá nails.

Additional exploration at Doubtful Canyon in September 2009 resulted in the discovery of three wide, round-headed, short-shanked tacks. Historian and nail expert Eugene Lyon identified these as estoperoles exhibiting the same charcteristics as those found at 1566-1587 Santa Elena on modern Parris Island in South Carolina. Fig. 7 compares tacks found at Doubtful Canyon to estoperoles excavated at Santa Elena. Also recovered from Doubtful Canyon was a chain hook similar in form, function, and craftsmanship to one found at the Coronado site of Piedras Marcadas. The totality of the Doubtful Canyon nails and tacks exhibiting characteristics comparable to such pieces found at Santa Elena and Bayahá, plus the chain hook similar to ones from Piedras Marcadas and Santa Elena, plus five lead shot being from a Spanish source location, plus the close proximity of three of the Spanish balls to the iron artifacts, offers compelling tangible evidence of the Coronado Expedition. (6)

Figure 7. Estoperoles are short tacks with wide round heads. The diameter of the head is about 80% of the length of the shank. Top left: estoperoles from Santa Elena, South Carolina. Top right: estoperoles accenting shanks from Doubtful Canyon. Middle: estoperoles accenting round heads from Doubtful Canyon. Bottom row: estoperoles in various positions. (Illustration top left, Stanley South, Russell K. Skowronek, and Richard E. Johnson, Spanish Artifacts from Santa Elena, Anthropological Studies, no. 7 (Columbia: South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1988), Fig. 20, p 45.) (Photographs top right, middle, bottom row by and courtesy author.)

The minimum extent of the Coronado camp is suggested by the known artifact array being 1.87 miles (3 km.) in length stretched along Doubtful Arroyo, which has a total length of about five and a half miles (9 km). The Doubtful Arroyo water source is best described as a "laguna," a term used by ranchers in modern Sonora, Mexico, to signify intermittent pools of water in an otherwise dry arroyo. The word "charco" is often used in New Mexico for this geomorphology. A similar setting existed at Kuykendall Ruins. Campsites and grazing in Doubtful Canyon would have been located on level grassland east and west of Steins Peak. Trees providing fuelwood and shade grew in the arroyo. The attraction of the canyon as a place for livestock grazing along a major trail is attested by newspaper correspondent J. M. Farwell, who passed through Doubtful Canyon on the westbound Butterfield stage in late October 1858. He reported that at the stage station on the east flank of Steins Peak was "encamped a very large American train from the west" and that a mile east of the station were "25,000 sheep owned by a Mexican who is with them on their way to a California market." These sheep would have been grazing in the level grassland around the Tub and Doubtful Boulder, and would have been watering in Doubtful Arroyo. (7)

Applying the modern Gregorian calendar for purposes of comparing climate, Coronado's advance party was at Doubtful Canyon on 3 July 1540. Referencing the climate reconstruction proposed by dendrochronologist Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, 1540 was a wet year. The summer monsoon was likely underway and provided water to both the arroyo and to Cozzens Lake, creating a fairway of favorable camps beside grassland that was greening from the rains. (8) The following army passed through the canyon in early October. Given the wet year, Cozzens Lake probably held water, and the arroyo and springs were likely charged from the monsoon that would have normally lasted into September, but maybe extended into October, and the grassland would have been bountiful from the summer rains. The retreating army occupied the canyon in late April 1542, after the seasonal winter rains had ended in March. Being as the climate was cold during those years (the Río Grande froze), there might have been winter snow on the canyon mountains, and spring would have brought snowmelt to charge the water supply. Spring grazing would have been on dry grass grown the previous summer or from springtime green shoots. The presence of good grazing along an extended linear watercourse containing fuelwood and shade is a mutual attribute conjoining Kuykendall Ruins and Doubtful Canyon.

Given the presumed discovery of Chichilticale at Kuykendall Ruins, the location of Doubtful Canyon as a Coronado camp fits the temporal record of travel by the advance party as presented in Jaramillo's narrative. Moreover, the artifacts my team discovered at Doubtful Canyon offer tangible evidence of the Captain General in the canyon. The entirety of this evidence suggests that Coronado first entered modern New Mexico on the Julian calendar date of 23 June 1540, and that he did so along a prehistoric Indian trail that would some three hundred years later become part of the Butterfield Trail.

Historical Support for Spanish Lead in Doubtful Canyon being of Coronado Origin

Isotope analysis strongly supports the conclusion that members of the Coronado Expedition carried shot that included balls made from Spanish lead sources. In addressing the issue of whether the Spanish lead found specifically at Doubtful Canyon arrived with Coronado or with later Spaniards, I reasoned that the Spanish developed their local mineral sources such that as the years progressed beyond 1521, less frequently did lead arrive in Mexico from Spain, eventually ceasing altogether.

Historians Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint provided evidence for my presumption. They pointed out "the collapse of the Spanish economy in the last half of the 1500s, from which the country did not fully recover for about 400 years. The combination of influx of American [New World] silver and [Spanish] military adventurism brought inflation followed by 'offshore out-sourcing' that nearly killed Spanish industry and mining on the peninsula and then caused three successive bankruptcies of the royal treasury." At the beginning of this economic failure there were active Spanish lead mines, but "when the economy collapsed, much mining in peninsular Spain simply stopped and didn’t [resume] again until the very late 1700s. In the 1600s and at least the first half of the 1700s, much of the lead used in Spain was coming from England. This increases the chance that lead balls from Spain at presumed Coronado route locations are from the 1500s and not later." (9)

Historian Clarence Henry Haring described Spanish maritime transport from Spain to the Middle New World as irregular at best, eventually trickling to almost nothing. By 1526, Spanish maritime transport was threatened by French corsairs. The Spanish responded to this in 1537 by sending a royal armada to the New World for the purpose of protecting the riches transported to Spain. Another armada sailed in the summer of 1542, the year the Coronado Expedition returned from Cíbola to Mexico City, and the ships did not go back to Spain until May 1543. The following August the Spaniards decreed that protected fleets should sail annually, and by 1550 the practice was in mode. Haring commented on its success: "Annual sailings were not the invariable rule, although they were the ideal striven after, and sometimes achieved. From about 1580 onward a year was frequently skipped, and toward the middle of the seventeenth-century, as the monarchy declined, the sailings became more and more irregular." Haring reported that "after 1651 Mexico was no longer able to support an annual flota; and that whereas formerly the fleets attained to a size of eight or nine thousand tons… if one of three thousand could be dispatched every two years, it was considered a miracle." This description supports the presumption of continuously fewer opportunities for Spanish lead to arrive in the Middle New World after the time of Coronado.

In 1522, Spanish ships were required by ordinance to carry arms and ammunition. Haring wrote, "For each large gun there were to be supplied three dozen shot, and for each of the pasavolantes (cannons) six dozen, with molds and lead to make bullets for the espingardas (small Moorish cannons). There were likewise two hundredweight of powder, ten crossbows with eight dozen arrows… None of this equipment might be sold or left [in the Middle New World]." The ordinance of 13 February 1552 required vessels, depending upon their tonnage, to carry twelve, twenty, or thirty arquebuses and crossbows. Twenty to fifty lead balls were required for the each gun. Haring reported that "molds for making lead bullets" were mandatory. The requirement of both lead shot and molds suggests that unfashioned lead was also likely carried on the ships. The Statement of Provisions for the Armada of Pedro de las Roelas, 1563 – 64, lists "two hundredweights of lead for shot for the arquebuses," thereby providing evidence of crude lead aboard Spanish ships. This reporting supports the possibility of Spanish lead arrivng in the Middle New World until at least the middle 1600s, although how much lead actually made it off the ships and into Mexico remains unknown.

Spain was not inclined to export lead. Despite the economic collapse of the latter sixteenth-century, Spanish demand for lead increased, constraining Spain's capacity to export lead to the New World. Spanish mining historian Francisco Gutiérrez Guzmán reported a number of factors that increased lead demand and subsequent shortages. He reported that beginning in 1514 the hulls of ships, especially those crossing the Atlantic, were lined with lead for the first time. Exacerbating the lead demand, a building construction boom occurred in Spain during the middle sixteenth-century, and lead was heavily used in the manufacture of roofs and conduits for water supplies. However, Spanish lead production was so diminished that lead was purchased from Flandes (Flanders). In 1564 the fledgling Linares mining district produced such an insignificant amount of lead that it was not named as a center, rather was included in the Alcudia-Almodóvar district. Nonetheless, due to increasing demand for lead and the concomitant depletion of the Alcudia-Almodóvar lead mines, by December 1565 Linares had become the largest lead producer in Spain and remained so through the last quarter of that century. During that time, especially from 1572 through 1579, demand for lead by military and maritime interests increased. In 1578 the demand for lead from Linares was so great that the Spanish crown consumed all the production, as it did between 1593 and 1598. By the seventeenth-century conditions had so deteriorated that the Spaniards were forced to buy ships from Holland, copper from Germany, and tin and lead from England, casting Spain into the dubious posture of being totally dependent on foreign manufacturing. These shortages continued into 1752 when lead production had declined to the extent that only one of thirty lead mines remained active in Linares.
In 1778 the general administrator of maritime mail in Habana requested from Spain lead plates for preservation of mail ships. The request was denied because there was no more lead of such dimensions in the government stockpile. Under conditions of restrained domestic supply and hindered maritime transportation, it seems likely that little, if any, lead was exported by Spain to Mexico after the middle sixteenth-century. (10)

For purposes of dating artifacts found at Doubtful Canyon, I found it essential to consider the history of that canyon. In a previous report I described the region including Doubtful Canyon as being seldom visited by Spaniards, with the first Spaniards after Coronado not appearing until the 1690s, and this in an area far southwest of the canyon. (11) Beginning in the early 1780s a number of excursions occurred in the Doubtful Canyon region; historian Alfred B. Thomas reported some of these.

The diary of Captain Don Joseph Antonio de Vildósola of his 1780 campaign reveals the reconnaissance techniques utilized by Spanish military of that time – the commanding officer ordered scouting patrols to reconnoiter specific locations and then rejoin the main party, thereby examining more terrain than possible with the entire detachment. The map presented by Thomas of his interpretation of the routes of Spanish military expeditions traced only the proposed routes of the main parties, not those of the scouting patrols. (12) Thomas showed that the region east of the Chiricahua Mountains experienced the most traffic. This includes the San Bernardino Valley, the San Simon Valley, the Peloncillo Mountains, Animas Valley, and the south side of the Río Gila. Considering the reconnaissance techniques of the Spaniards, and recognizing that Doubtful Canyon was an important passage through the region, it is probable that Spanish soldiers had visited the canyon by 1780, and if not, then did so shortly thereafter. Being as there were two windows of Spanish presence in the region (one dating 1540 – 1542, the other spanning 1690 – 1821), it follows that Spanish military and domestic artifacts could be present in Doubtful Canyon.

Following independence from Spain in 1821 and extending to 1851, the Mexican military occasionally visited the Doubtful Canyon region. American mountain man David Jackson led a party of eleven men from Santa Fe to California in 1831. “Each man had a riding mule; there were seven pack mules [and] five of the pack mules were loaded with Mexican silver dollars… Their route proceeded from water hole to water hole by way of Doubtful Canyon, Apache Pass, [Sulphur Springs Valley] and Dragoon Wash to the San Pedro River just north of present St. David, Arizona… This direct route had been traversed in sections over its complete length by various Spanish and Mexican military parties… [until 1851] on account of Indian hostilities." (13) Mexican military articles dating 1821 to 1851 could be present in Doubtful Canyon.

After Jackson opened the Doubtful Canyon route there is no record of its having been used again by emigrants. During the rush to California in 1849, the Gila Trail was the preferred route, a portion of which led southwest from the south end of the Burro Mountains to the San Bernardino Ranch, and then turned west toward Santa Cruz. The Fremont Association was the first recorded party to break from that traditional route. I interpreted the westward path of the Fremont emigrants to include a close proximity to Soldier’s Farewell Mountain, to the water pools on the northeastern side of the Pyramid Mountains near modern Lordsburg, to a dry camp on the western side of South Pyramid Peak, to a crossing of the Peloncillo Mountains near Granite Gap, to the Cienega San Simón (El Sauz), to a San Simón Valley dry camp in the San Simón - Wood Mountain area, to a watered camp in the Wood Canyon area, and to Apache Spring. (See Map 2.) My reading of the record did not favor a passage through Doubtful Canyon. If I am correct in my interpretation of the route, and if emigrants following the Fremont Association traced the same route, then Doubtful Canyon hosted few wagoneer gold rush travelers, suggesting that artifacts of that emigration event should not be expected in the canyon. (14)

Following the Mexican-American War, the treaty-makers at Guadalupe Hidalgo, on 2 February 1848, established the boundary between the United States and Mexico. The effort to effectuate this boundary brought United States Land Commissioner John Russell Bartlett to the Southwest, and he produced an illustrated account of his travels. Using this account, I interpreted Bartlett to have been camped at the foot of Sugar Loaf Hill (Steins Peak) in Doubtful Canyon the morning of 1 September 1851. On 2 September, Bartlett split his party into two groups, deliberately sending the wagons through modern Steins railroad pass while he and the pack mules followed Doubtful Canyon to its western side at the Roostercomb. (15)

Bartlett did not bring a wagon through Doubtful Canyon in 1851. Nor had Jackson in 1831. Possibly their wagons could not maneuver the terrain. One of the first to traverse the canyon in a wagon was the San Antonio and San Diego Mail Company (SA&SD) in 1857. The Overland Mail Company (Butterfield) began operation a year later. Both these lines had stations in Doubtful Canyon. The Butterfield station was a meal stop, so a cook plus a station master were the minimum staff, but the station probably also included a farrier-wagoner-harness cowboy. The presence of the station represented an occupation in the canyon and these dates provide a benchmark for the beginning of an increased American presence in Doubtful Canyon. (16) Wagons and coaches frequented Doubtful Canyon until the summer of 1861, when the SA&SD ceased operations after the Butterfield had done so the previous March. (17) The stagecoaches and freight wagons returned to the region in 1867, when the National Mail and Transportation Company established a station at Mexican Springs (Shakespeare), operating until 1881. (18) This history suggests that metal artifacts representing eighteen discontinuous years of stagecoach and freight wagon traffic should be expected in the canyon.

An increasing American military presence began in Doubtful Canyon in 1861. The Bascom Affair of that year initiated war with the Apaches. Fort Bowie was built in 1862. Various companies of the Union California Volunteers 5th Regiment were stationed at Fort Bowie and Fort Cummings during the span from February 1862 to December 1864. In 1871 President Ulysses Simpson Grant sent a peace commission to Arizona Territory with orders to establish Indian reservations. Within a year, five reservations had been designated. Not all Apaches elected to go to a reservation. The United States military was engaged in war with the Apaches by 1877. The conflict lasted until a peace treaty in 1886. Fort Bowie was abandoned in 1894. (19) Throughout the thirty-three years of Apache – American conflict, the United States military infrequently, but periodically, visited Doubtful Canyon, finally ending their patrols by 1894. Metal military objects from this period of presence should be expected in a representative sampling of discovered artifacts.

Mr. Gould was the first Anglo-American resident of Doubtful Canyon, arriving before 1902. He created a dugout in the side of the canyon in the Narrows at a spot of permanent surface water. As early as 1902, and before 1910, Margaret Catheryn Eshom Lyall, at that time in her fifties and known as Kate, bought the Gould dugout and moved into Doubtful Canyon. Her homestead was patented on 24 June 1924. Elmer Archer Lyall, known as Arch, joined his mother Kate in 1912 and patented his Little Doubtful homestead in May 1924. By 1914 Fred and Vera Fuqua Braidfoot had arrived in the canyon; they patented their land in 1919. Arch Lyall moved to San Simón in 1922, leaving his Little Doubtful ranch unoccupied. Kate Lyall remained in Doubtful Canyon until May of 1928. No Lyall ever lived in the canyon after Kate left – only the Braidfoot family remained. Mary Honorhea Braidfoot, daughter of Fred and Vera, patented a homestead west of her parents in 1937, the same year her father Fred died. Widow Vera lived until 1953. Four years later Honorhea, the only surviving Braidfoot, died, causing both Braidfoot homesteads to be abandoned, leaving Doubtful Canyon empty of human occupation. (20) The homesteader period lasted from about 1900 to 1957 and included three home sites. Artifacts from that time period should be expected in the canyon.

Historical artifacts expected in Doubtful Canyon lend themselves well to temporal categorization. Given that artifacts discovered in Doubtful Canyon were not transported there by secondary bearers, the following assessment seems reasonable. If Coronado were truly present with his hundreds of metal bearers, there should be an expectation of finding 1540 -1542 domestic and military artifacts. My team found seven nails and three tacks that are representative in form, function and craftsmanship of this period, as well as five shot composed of Spanish lead and interpreted to be sixteenth-century in age. Few Spanish pieces dating between 1542 and 1780 should be expected because the Spanish presence was slight, maybe even absent. Spanish military pieces dating between 1780 and 1821 could be present, but should not be expected because Spanish presence was minor, considerably less than the number of metal bearers in the various Coronado parties. Likewise, Mexican military pieces dating 1821 to 1849 could be present, but since Mexican presence was slight, such artifacts should not be anticipated. Supporting this contention, my team found no iron objects that could conclusively be identified with the post-Coronado Spanish or Mexican periods, and, most notably, isotope analysis found no conclusive Mexican lead among the thirteen shot found in the canyon, lending support to the scarcity of post-Coronado Spanish or Mexican visitors. American passenger and freight artifacts dating 1857 to 1894 should be anticipated. American military artifacts should be expected to range in dates from 1861 to 1894. My team found American military and civilian personal items dating from 1850 to the 20th century, as well as wagon bolts, barrel straps, horse and mule shoes, and cut and wire nails. Homesteader artifacts should date from shortly before 1902 until 1957, and, as expected, the area is littered with samples from that period.

Table 2 was generated from the February 2009 report provided by Legg. (21) The table shows a positive correlation between artifact and historical period as predicted by interpreting the written history. Additional evidence of nineteenth-century American military or civilian artifacts are seven lead shot ranging from 0.31 caliber to 0.51 caliber identified by isotope ratios as composed of midwestern USA lead.

Of consequence to artifact dating, the historical calendar suggests that any domestic Spanish artifact, if it can be shown to have been available in the sixteenth-century, cannot be excluded as possibly being from the Coronado Expedition inventory. In favor of Spanish artifacts found in Doubtful Canyon being of a Coronado origin is that the variety and number of metal bearers with Coronado, if he passed through the canyon at all, far exceeded the total of all subsequent Spanish bearers, reinforcing the suggestion that any Doubtful Canyon Spanish artifact, especially if it is domestic in nature, is more likely than not a residual of the expedition. This association becomes even more probable as the number of domestic items increases. The evidence of Spanish lead, when added to the history of the canyon and to the presence of the compelling nails and tacks, significantly strengthens the likelihood of these being vestiges of the sixteenth-century adventure and the concomitant likelihood that Doubtful Canyon was a campsite along the Coronado Trail.

Developments at Kuykendall Ruins Since Autumn 2008

Isotope analysis identified two shot of Spanish lead and two of midwestern USA lead at Kuykendall Ruins. In a previous report I presented history indicating that the first Spaniards returning to the Chichilticale region after Coronado did not arrive until about 1690, some 150 years after the expedition, and some 170 years after the Spaniards conquered Mexico City. (22) This hiatus in Spanish presence coupled with evidence of a diminishing or terminated supply of lead from Spain serves to strengthen the likelihood that the shot of Spanish lead found at Kuykendall Ruins originated with some of the hundreds of 1540 – 1542 Coronado expeditionaries rather than with one of the few travelers arriving after 1690. This reasoning reinforces the association of Kuykendall Ruins with Chichilticale.

Metal detecting at Kuykendall Ruins continued in 2009. On 25 March, the Geronimo range fire burned 2600 acres in Cochise County, Arizona, including the sites of Kuykendall Ruins and FF:2:6. (23) Six days later two team members and I conducted field reconnaissance and observed that areas previously occupied by tall sacaton and catclaw had been almost totally cleared by the blaze. Strong spring winds during the following several weeks swept the exposed surface clean, creating a unique opportunity to pull our Blennert sleds across terrain previously inaccessible due to obstructive vegetation. Eight team members from three states converged on Kuykendall Ruins on 19 April and conducted a three-day search of conscientiously selected locations in Ruins Arroyo, Ruins Plain, and Clearings Arroyo. The team employed two Blennert sleds in the gridded search areas, and utilized handheld metal detectors where burned catclaw stumps prevented sledding.

On the north bank of Ruins Arroyo in a burned catclaw thicket, team member Loro Lorentzen discovered an iron staple of the La Isabela style. Two iron staples of this fashion had been previously discovered and reported. (24) Fig. 8 shows three La Isabela style iron staples found at Kuykendall Ruins.

Figure 8. La Isabela style staples from Kuykendall Ruins. For a discussion of this style see Nugent Brasher, "The Red House Camp and the Captain General," New Mexico Historical Review 84 (winter 2009): 24 Fig.12, 25. (Photograph by and courtesy author.)

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) is sometimes effective in determination of the most recent date that a rock reached a temperature sufficient to reset it from geological time. I wrote that OSL dating "should be conducted on a significant number of thermal features (piles of burned rocks) suspected to be Coronado campfires. The number of dates obtained must be sufficient to provide a statistically relevant conclusion." (25) To evaluate the feasibility of expensive OSL dating of a statistically meaningful number of suspected campfires at Kuykendall Ruins, I submitted for OSL test dating two burned rock fragments to Dr. Jean-Luc Schwenninger at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art (RLAHA) at the University of Oxford. The fragment taken from a buried fire near where the iron bolthead was found (bolthead fire) dated 330 plus/minus 35 years before 2007, or 1642-1712. The fragment from a surface fire near where several irons hooklets were found (hooklet fire) tested as ">9000: insufficient heating." This means that the hooklet fire rock had not reached a temperature sufficient to reset the geological date. Being as I have suggested that many of the thermal features are "fires of only a brief duration" because they were Coronado Expedition fires, the OSL result for the hooklet fire is cautiously supportive. The bolthead point fire cannot be excluded as a Coronado fire because post-Coronado visitors may have reheated the rocks. (26) The ambiguous results of these two tests have caused us to hold in abeyance any further OSL dating efforts.

The Trail to Nuevo México after Coronado

Lead isotope analysis concluded that Spanish and Middle New World lead were used to make shot found at both Hawikku and at Piedras Marcadas in Tiguex, and that midwestern USA lead was found in a ball from Kyakima. The post-Coronado history of what is now modern New Mexico is relevant to determination of the most likely bearers for the balls of Spanish lead. In 1546 a bonanza of mineral wealth was discovered at Zacatecas. Historian John Francis Bannon described the event as "…North America had its first boom town. Other [mining discoveries] followed in quick succession – some along the eastern face of the Sierra Madre, such as Guanajuato [in 1559] and Aguas Calientes [in 1575], and farther to the east on a line northward from Querétaro, such as San Luis Potosí [in 1592] and Mazapil [in 1569]… A new province, Nueva Vizcaya, was established in the early 1560s [with Durango as its capital]… From Durango the Spaniards pushed… into [modern] Chihuahua… to Santa Bárbara, [founded in 1567 and located fifteen kilometers southwest of modern Hidalgo del Parral]. This last outpost, on the headwaters of one of the tributaries of the Río Conchos [and where silver had been discovered in 1567], was the center from which several expeditions to the farther north pushed out in the 1580s, expeditions which set the stage for the occupation of New Mexico…" (27) Historians George P. Hammond and Agapito Rey described Santa Bárbara as "the most renowned spot on the northern prong of Spanish advance in Mexico. It was the magnet that attracted a swarm of frontiersmen… [It was] the end of the line… and the home base for fitting out new prospecting ventures." (28) Fittingly, Santa Bárbara was the northern terminus of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. (See Map 3)

Any Spaniard known to have arrived at Hawikku or Tiguex after Coronado did so after the 1546 silver discovery at Zacatecas. These northbound Spaniards would have followed El Camino Real, the supply line road of the central corridor of Mexico that connected the rich mines between Querétaro and Santa Bárbara in newly founded Nueva Vizcaya. Construction of El Camino de La Plata, the stretch of El Camino Real between Querétaro on the south and Zacatecas on the north, began in 1550, and by 1552 was used by carts and wagons. In 1582 a traveler described the road as "through the mines of Zacatecas." Lead was a valuable byproduct of mining along El Camino de La Plata. (29)

Capt. Gen. Francisco Vázquez de Coronado did not travel El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro. (See Map 3.) The 1540 – 1542 expedition departed Mexico City to the west toward Compostela (modern Tepic, Nayarit). Castañeda describes the route in his report of viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza traveling to that spot: "[The viceroy] departed for Compostela accompanied by many caballeros and noblemen, and he had New Year's Day of 1540 in Pasquaro (Pátzcuaro)… [and from there] he crossed all the land of Nueva España to Compostela." Being as the route to Compostela passed through northern Tarasca, it is almost certain that the road followed by the Spaniards was a pre-conquest Tarascan trail connecting trade, administrative centers and copper mines. From Pátzcuaro the route continued west to Colima. There the trail turned north to pass through another region of Tarascan copper mines, the farthest northwestern outposts in Tarasca, before reaching Compostela. Between Compostela and San Miguel de Culiacán, the northwestern outpost of New Spain, the trail hugged the coast, passing west of the future mines in Sinaloa. Map 3 shows that members of the Coronado Expedition were likely exposed to an opportunity to acquire lead from a Tarascan source (modern states of Jalisco and Michoacán). (30)

Post-Coronado travelers departing northbound from Santa Bárbara before 1598 would have followed a trail blazed for the purpose of hunting slaves to work in the mines near town. (See Map 4.) Early 1580s northbound explorers Captain Francisco Sánchez Chamuscado and Antonio de Espejo departed for modern New Mexico along that slave trail – first downstream along the Río Conchos in Mexico to its junction with the Río Guadalquivir (Río Grande), then upstream by that river to the pueblos in the upper valley, the region of Río Arriba, then west to Hawikku. Rejecting this traditional route, however, northbound colonist Juan de Oñate in 1598 followed another trail to Río Arriba. Historian Marc Simmons suspected that Oñate chose the alternate route because the Indians along the Río Conchos had grown hostile due to "slaving expeditions raiding their villages." Riley described the route: "[Oñate] struck out from a base in northern Chihuahua in a northwesterly direction, roughly following the line of modern Mexican Highway 15, but intercepting the Río Grande somewhat to the south and east of modern El Paso." Geographer Hal Jackson offered a reasoned selection of three places where Oñate could have crossed the Río del Norte (Río Grande) – all near Fabens, Texas. Oñate then followed the Río del Norte to Río Arriba. (31)

The Return of the Spaniards

The Spaniards came back to New Mexico in 1581, some forty years after Coronado had departed in 1542. A hopeful group of thirty-one Spaniards led by Captain Francisco Sánchez Chamuscado and Franciscan Augustín Rodríquez departed on 5 June 1581 from Santa Bárbara, driving six hundred head of stock and ninety horses while transporting trade goods. The party reached Tiguex about the first of September, where they were not confronted by the Tiwas despite the savaging of the pueblos inflicted by Coronado some forty years previous. Chamuscado did not linger in Tiguex, instead continuing north and then east to the buffalo country of eastern New Mexico before returning to Tiguex in Río Arriba. At the beginning of this eastward trip, around 10 September, friar Juan de Santa María attempted to return to New Spain, but was killed by Indians after only two or three travel days to the south. After returning to Tiwa country the party explored to the west, appearing in Zuni on 15 December. (32) How long the group stayed at Zuni is unreported, but is likely measured in days rather than weeks. Chamuscado returned to Tiguex and then proceeded to the southeast to observe some reported salt deposits, after which he again returned to Tiwa country. As with his sojourn in Zuni, the total duration of Chamuscado's time in Tiguex was not lengthy, almost certainly less than two weeks. On 31 January 1582 Chamuscado departed Río Arriba without the two remaining friars. He had become ill and was being bled by his companions, and he died on the trail. On Easter Sunday, 15 April 1582, the small party reached Santa Bárbara. Immediately, Hernán Gallegos, an expedition member, rushed to Mexico City with news of the adventure. Included in his report was that "the land is flat and can be traveled on foot or on horseback with pack animals, and it is suitable for wagons." (33)

Franciscan authorities in Mexico City expressed alarm upon learning that one friar had been killed and the other two friars had not returned with Chamuscado, electing instead to remain in Río Arriba at Tiguex. In response, Fray Bernardino Beltrán organized a rescue party and wealthy Antonio de Espejo financed and directed it. On 10 November 1582, a group of about forty travelers, including some twelve to fourteen soldiers, the wife and three small children of one of the soldiers, the friar Beltrán, and the "captain" Espejo, departed Santa Bárbara via the Río Conchos route. The livestock included one hundred fifteen horses and mules, plus arms and munitions. Before reaching Tiguex in middle February 1583, Espejo had already learned that the two friars had been killed. Espejo found Tiguex abandoned, likely the result of fear of retaliation by Espejo.

Despite objections by Beltrán, Espejo took the opportunity to range as far west as central Arizona for the purpose of mineral prospecting. Leaving the Río del Norte north of Tiguex near modern San Felipe at the end of February, the explorers turned west, passing through Zia Pueblo and Acoma before reaching Hawikku on 15 March 1583. About three weeks later, Espejo and nine soldiers departed Hawikku and continued west. Beltrán remained in Hawikku with most of the expedition. Espejo passed through the Hopi pueblos on his search for mines. At Aguato (Awátovi) on Tuesday, 30 April 1583, the Espejo group partitioned into two parties of five men – one party continued west to near modern Jerome, Arizona, where Espejo visited mines shown him by the Indians; the other party, including "friendly Indians," returned to Zuni. Espejo was back at Zuni on 17 May 1583, his return being over a different route because he wanted to take the opportunity to observe and appraise the land, a process that accomplished finding a more level route from Zuni to the mines.

In Halona (modern Zuni), Espejo found that the five soldiers who had returned from Aguato "had not yet met the father or the other five companions." Nevertheless, Beltrán, with some three to five soldiers plus another two dozen people, were there, and they had been in Hawikku – Halona for two months, making their visit the longest by Spaniards since Coronado had withdrawn in 1542 with his 1,550-2,350 people and approximately 6,220 livestock.

Nine days after Espejo arrived in Halona, Beltrán resolved to return to the "land of peace" despite objections by Espejo, and shortly after 26 May the friar and about thirty followers headed toward Santa Bárbara. A few days later, on 31 May 1583 Espejo with eight fighting men and some servants left Zuni. Espejo likely retraced his route to Acoma, and near there the Spaniards skirmished with Querecho Indians residing in that vicinity. Continuing on, the party reached Tiguex on 19 June 1583. The trail between Acoma and the Río del Norte near Puala pueblo (Puaray) was new to Espejo because he had not followed that route on his journey to Zuni. As for Beltrán, historians Hammond and Rey reported that he and his followers "reached Santa Bárbara, safe and sound, before Espejo's group, but we have no record of their journey." Espejo was at Tiguex only a few days, during which he burned the Puala pueblo before heading east to Pecos, where he then turned south on 5 July 1583, forging a new trail via the Río Pecos on his way to the Río Conchos, reaching Santa Bárbara on 10 September 1583. (34) The sum total of Espejo's time in Tiwa country was about two weeks.

The expedition of Gaspar Castaño de Sosa departed modern Monclova, Coahuila, Mexico on 27 July 1590 accompanied by more than 160 men, women and children and their livestock, which included more than 250 oxen, in a convoy of at least ten carts bound for Río Arriba with the intent to colonize there. Castaño had sought permission from the viceroy for his expedition, but he had been denied; nevertheless he proceeded defiantly with his plan. About 10 March 1591, by way of west Texas, eastern New Mexico and Pecos pueblo, the party reached modern Santo Domingo, New Mexico, the first to do so employing wheeled carts, where they established a center of operations.

With twenty men, possibly on 12 March, Castaño rode south in search of mineral deposits. He reached the Río Grande near modern Bernalillo on about 13 or 14 March. He crossed the river for a brief visit before returning to the east side and turning south. On 14 or 15 March, Castaño ordered thirteen of his men to return to Santo Domingo. During the next two days the eight remaining Spaniards visited pueblos on both sides of the river in the vicinities of modern Alameda and Corrales. One night was passed on the west side of the river, possibly at or near Piedras Marcadas. On 15 or 16 March, Castaño began his return along the east side of the Río Grande to Santo Domingo, where his unauthorized adventure crumbled when Captain Juan Morlete arrived with fifty men to arrest Castaño and his men. The viceroy had ordered Morlete to impound all the expedition's goods and to bring them to Mexico City, and the record suggests that this was achieved. The total elapsed time of Castaño's presence in Tiguex was less than a week. Castaño, of course, never reached Zuni. (35)

Following Castaño de Sosa by three years, the unauthorized party of Antonio Gutiérrez de Humaña and Francisco Leyva de Bonilla and an unknown number of followers settled in Río Arriba at San Ildefonso pueblo. During the one year of their presence, the Spaniards traveled amongst the pueblos. While it can be presumed that they likely visited Tiguex, there is no record of them visiting Zuni, although since the party was looking for mines, it is reasonable to consider that they may have traveled there. (36)

Spanish explorer Juan de Oñate and his New Mexico colonists departed the Río San Gerónimo near the Todos Santos mines on 26 January 1598. Anthropologist David Snow reported that although he was "able to arrive at a count of some 560 persons with Oñate – mostly men of course – official correspondence in several places estimate some 700 persons." With respect to the number of livestock composing the expedition, using the translations of the Spanish documents provided by historians George P. Hammond and Agapito Rey, I tallied 8,149 animals. Oñate's advance party reached Tiguex by 24 June 1598, and, finding the country mostly deserted, the colonists passed through to arrive at Santo Domingo on 30 June, where they established their first settlement. The carts and wagons arrived on 18 August, and that date marks the largest concentration of Europeans and their provisions to occupy Río Arriba since Coronado had departed in 1542, as well as marking the beginning of the flood of European articles into the region. (37)

Oñate first arrived in Zuni on All Saints Day 1598 on his expedition to discover the South Sea. He and his military party reached Hawikku on 3 November, remaining until the eighth. During that time Captain Marcos Farfán de los Godos traveled to Zuni Salt Lake. Afterwards the party continued west to the Hopi villages where Oñate was told of people to the south who painted their bodies with colors of the earth. Oñate sent Captain Farfán to investigate while Oñate returned to Hawikku about 23 November 1598. On 11 December Farfán reported to Oñate in Hawikku that he had found silver mines. The following day, due to the coming winter and concern for his party, Oñate abandoned his quest for the South Sea and departed Zuni for Río Arriba. All told, the Oñate party had frequented Zuni for a period of about three and a half weeks. Six years later, in October 1604, Oñate returned to Zuni on his second attempt to reach the South Sea. Accompanying Oñate were two friars, a military captain and thirty soldiers. The party found four of the six Zuni pueblos in ruin, but inhabited, with Hawikku being the principal pueblo. Oñate successfully reached the mouth of the Río Colorado where it enters the Sea of Cortés, hardly the Pacific Ocean, but nevertheless believed to be the South Sea. In April 1605 the party passed through Zuni on its return to Río Arriba. Oñate's total elapsed presence at Hawikku in 1598, 1604, and 1605 likely lasted less than five weeks. (38)

Colonization and conversion began when Oñate arrived at Río Arriba in 1598, but missionaries were not sent to Zuni until 1629. That year Fray Francisco de Porras and Fray Roque Figueredo founded a church at Hawikku. Four years later the Zunis killed two missionaries and some soldiers, forcing abandonment of the mission. By 1643 the Spaniards had returned and the Zunis helped rebuild at Hawikku. The mission at Hawikku lasted until 1670, when Apaches killed the missionary, resulting in the total abandonment forever of Hawikku. The mission at Halona existed until the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, when the missionary was killed. Not until 1699 was a new church built, once again bringing the Spaniards to Halona. The Hawikku mission was not recreated because the Zunis adopted a more compact settlement. After 1700, traffic both military and religious in nature, increased between Río Arriba and Zuni, although the pueblo remained far removed from Spanish, then Mexican, and finally Anglo influence. (39)

The first known post-Coronado Spaniard to arrive at Zuni from the southwest rather than the central corridor was Captain José de Zúñiga in 1795, who was exploring for a road connecting the Spanish colony at Tucson, Arizona, with Río Arriba. (40) (See Map 4) His was not the first effort to establish such a connection. In 1780 Governor Don Juan Bautista de Anza was credited with blazing a trail from Santa Fe to Arizpe (in modern Sonora, Mexico). The route was alongside the Río Grande southward to near modern Hatch, New Mexico, then southwest to the bootheel of New Mexico, then west to Las Nutrias, and finally south to Arizpe. The Anza route stayed south and east of the Coronado Trail that passed through modern southeastern Arizona and western New Mexico. (41) Seven years after the Anza adventure, Don Manuel de Echeagaray attempted to "open a route which would facilitate the exchange of goods [between Sonora and Santa Fe]." I have attempted to reconstruct the route of Echeagaray by studying the summary of his excursion offered by Hammond and Rey. My estimate is that the party reached the Plains of San Agustín near Horse Springs, New Mexico, before backtracking to Apache Creek and turning north to reach Hardcastle Gap before returning to the southwest. (42)

Seven years later, Zúñiga followed some of the Echeagaray route, eventually reaching Zuni, where he reported a missionary in the "Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de Zuni" (Halona). Zúñiga also mentioned departing Halona to the southwest and camping at "an abandoned pueblo known as el agua caliente del Pueblo antiguo de Zuñi," likely Hawikku. Zúñiga did not proceed east of Zuni. (43)

The route taken by Zúñiga in 1795 may have been known long before. In 1760 Bishop Pedro Tamarón y Romeral of Durango made an expedition of inspection to the upper Southwest. He wrote, "When I was in Bassaraca (Baserac), the general of the Opatas, Don Jerónimo, offered, if I liked, to take me from there to New Mexico in a few days, for he knew a much shorter route than the one I had planned to take to El Paso." The first significant Zuni contact with Anglos began when trappers appeared from 1826 through 1828. (44)

Post-Coronado Firearms and Lead in Río Arriba and Zuni

Motive, means and opportunity should be addressed when considering lead shot found in Río Arriba and Zuni. Written history reveals the opportunity for balls of Middle New World or Spanish lead to appear at Hawikku and Tiguex as soon as forty years after Coronado. There is evidence supporting the likelihood that firearms, lead, and discharging of firearms occurred at Zuni during one or all of the Chamuscado-Rodríquez, Espejo-Beltrán, and Oñate visits. Some Hawikku visits were lengthy and offered greater opportunity to leave shot there. Beltrán and some two dozen people, including several soldiers, remained at Hawikku-Halona for two months in 1583 while Espejo roamed to the west. Shot from that visit are possible at Hawikku. The Oñate visit to Hawikku in 1598 lasted over three weeks, followed by other visits of unknown duration in 1604 and 1605, and shot could have come these occasions. Other lead balls could have appeared at any time after Oñate arrived in 1598.

The first three opportunities for lead carried by Spaniards to appear at Tiguex after Coronado departed are represented by brief visits of few people. The thirty-one members of the Chamuscado party were there less than two weeks, Espejo and his group of forty were there about two weeks, and Castaño, with twenty or fewer men, was there less than a week. Humaña was likely at Tiguex, but with an unknown number of people for an unknown length of time. Although lead found at Tiguex could have originated with any of these travelers, an even greater opportunity for lead to appear in Tiwa country is provided by the Oñate colonization of New Mexico, which brought a flood of lead. Given the presumed wide range of the colonists, lead from those settlers could be the source for shot found at Tiguex.

The mention of arquebuses in the written record is common. Testimony by Chamuscado expedition members Pedro de Bustamante and Hernando Gallegos included relating that each carried arquebuses and that such firearms had been used to kill buffalo. Gallegos wrote, "We fired quite a few arquebus shots, at which the natives were much frightened…," and, "the arquebuses roared a great deal and spat fire like lightening" and "[Pedro de Bustamante] picked up a bit of hay, started a fire by means of an arquebus, and prepared to burn the pueblo." Kessell reported that on occasions the Spaniards of the Chamuscado party "inspired both respect and friendship by firing their arquebuses." Gallegos reported that when the Chamuscado expedition arrived back in Santa Bárbara, "we were well received… and given a warm welcome. We fired a salute to the town with our arquebuses…" With respect to the use of firearms by the Espejo party, Kessell wrote, "The Spaniards camped two arquebus shots away [from Pecos]… When they asked for food, the natives… pulled up their ladders and refused to come down… Espejo and five soldiers, threatening to burn the place, entered and began firing their arquebuses in the plaza and streets..." Castaño de Sosa reported that the raising of the cross at pueblos in Río Arriba was accompanied by "the sound of trumpets and arquebus shots." Historian Marc Simmons reported on events of the September 1598 festival during the dedication of Oñate's church at San Juan Bautista: "At week's end, the festival concluded with a thunderous volley of artillery." These examples point to a wide-ranging, continual use of arquebuses as the means for distributing lead shot in Río Arriba and Zuni, as well as pointing out the motives for discharging these weapons. (45)

The record of materials carried by the Oñate party reveals the importance of lead and firearms, as well as information on where at least some of the lead was obtained. "[On 9 February 1597], at the mines of Todos Santos, the governor [Oñate] presented [to the inspector] 100 quintals of lead. It had been bought from Diego de Zubía, alcalde mayor…" The following 3 January 1598, an inventory found that only 78 quintals and eight pounds remained. About three weeks later the Oñate Expedition departed Arroyo San Gerónimo, north of Santa Bárbara, after the final inspection. The second day's march passed by El Torrente de la Cruz and reached "the mouth of the Todos Santos mine," where the party spent the night. Jackson provided a verbal location for these mines, and I understand them to be about forty kilometers north of modern Parral, Chihuahua. Although there is no record of such, it is not inconceivable that Oñate bought still more lead at Todos Santos. If he did not, then the last recorded amount of lead carried by Oñate was 17,168 pounds, all from Todos Santos mine. (46)

In addition to the lead for the unified expedition, individual members carried personal lead and powder, attesting to the communal use of firearms. The following quotations respecting gear taken by expedition members are taken from various records of the Oñate Expedition: "two molds and a gunner's iron ladle for making balls;" "eight pounds of ammunition;" "twenty-five pounds of powder;" "two pounds of powder and four of shot;" "half an arroba (~12.5 lbs.) of powder;" "one barrel of powder containing about half a quintal (50 kg, 110 lbs.);" "twenty-five pounds of lead;" "one mold for making shot;" "twenty-five pounds of lead made into bullets and buckshot;" "one arroba (25 lbs.) of powder and half an arroba (~12.5 lbs.) of ball." The records include numerous instances of expedition members carrying tools for gunsmithing. (47)

This evidence provides the means for lead shot and firearms arriving from Mexico, as well as a motive for the discharge of them, as early as 1581, and the consequential opportunity for lead shot to appear at Hawikku and Tiguex. The reports show that Todos Santos lead was purchased by at least one traveler, Oñate, such lead being purchased near Santa Bárbara, thereby providing a source of lead to any northbound traveler and demonstrating the assertion that travelers bought lead along the way.

Respecting the written history, the availability and use of firearms, and the convenience of lead mines along the road, I reasoned that although the early Río Arriba explorers, or those even later, could not be excluded as the bearers of the Spanish lead balls from Hawikku and Piedras Marcadas, that it was most likely that these late sixteenth-century adventurers carried Middle New World lead, particularly Mexican, rather than Spanish shot. The shortage of lead that existed in Spain at that same time, coupled with irregular maritime transportation, suggests that Spanish lead was probably not being exported to Mexico. As for the source of the late sixteenth-century explorer's Middle New World lead, it seems reasonable that lead arriving in Río Arriba after Coronado was more likely from northcentral Mexico than from Tarasca or Central America because of the different travel route. Moreover, being as lead from northcentral Mexico was probably unavailable to the Coronado Expedition, it is improbable that Coronado carried any from there, whereas he traveled through the Tarascan mining region and could have obtained lead along that route. Given these parameters, just being able to confidently identify Tarascan lead (Coronado route) and northcentral Mexico lead (post-Coronado route) provides compelling evidence for assigning a relative date to balls of Mexican lead.

Unfortunately, lead isotope analysis was inconclusive as to whether the two Middle New World lead shot found at Hawikku and the single Middle New World ball found at Piedras Marcadas were Tarascan, northcentral Mexican or Central American because the shot appears amongst all three imprecisely bounded isotope populations. Consequently I cannot assign the Middle New World lead found at Hawikku or Piedras Marcadas to a particular expedition or event – it may or may not be from the Coronado Expedition. On the other hand, because of historical reasons, I am confident in assigning the Spanish lead found at Hawikku and Piedras Marcadas to the Coronado Expedition.

Spanish and Mexican Lead Shot at Jimmy Owens

Lead isotope ratio analysis identified one shot found at the Jimmy Owens site as Spanish lead and three balls as being Middle New World lead. In my attempt to determine the event(s) that caused this lead to be at the location, I could find no written evidence that the Jimmy Owens site was ever occupied or visited by Spaniards after Coronado departed there in 1541. Archaeologist Jonathan E. Damp reported, "The Owens site is a Coronado campsite in Texas that has no later component so all artifacts found at the site should pertain to the Coronado Expedition." Despite this claim, I reported a Spanish military copper button from the Jimmy Owens collection that dates 1710 – 1750. (48) How it arrived at the site remains unknown, but it offers, nevertheless, evidence of Spanish metal unrelated to the Coronado Expedition.

Historical evidence exists for the claim that Spaniards visited the geographical region containing the Jimmy Owens site. Excursions to the east by the Spanish military commenced as soon as Oñate arrived in Río Arriba and continued until Mexican independence. As early as September 1598, Oñate sent scouts from Río Arriba to the headwaters of the Canadian River near Amarillo, Texas, and in 1601, Oñate led an expedition that reached central Kansas. (49) Excursions such as these persisted during the time represented by the button found at the Jimmy Owens site. Oklahoma historian Alfred B. Thomas provided two maps of Spanish excursions in his summary of Spanish exploration east from Santa Fe from 1599 to 1792. The maps trace the reported trails of Spaniards roaming east from Río Arriba, and they serve to illustrate the range of Spanish excursions and to point out that the Jimmy Owens site falls well within the reach of Spanish exploration, both reported and unreported. (50)

For the same reasons affecting the Hawikku and Piedras Marcadas balls, lead isotope analysis was inconclusive as to whether the three Middle New World lead shot found at Jimmy Owens were Tarascan, northcentral Mexican or Central American. Given the likelihood of a post-Coronado Spanish presence in the Jimmy Owens region, and the likelihood that these Spaniards carried lead from Mexico, while at the same time acknowledging that the Jimmy Owens site was a water source that attracted long-distance travelers, one cannot exclude post-Coronado Spaniards as possible bearers of the three balls under consideration. However, given the association of the three Jimmy Owens shot with accepted Coronado artifacts, and the isotopic possibility that the lead could be Tarascan, it is much more likely that the balls of Middle New World lead found at Jimmy Owens are indeed from Tarasca and the Coronado Expedition rather than from a later, unreported Spanish excursion. With respect to the shot of Spanish lead found amongst dozens of accepted Coronado artifacts, I concluded that it almost certainly belonged to one of Coronado's expeditionaries.

Temporal Interpretation of Artifacts

Lead isotope analysis concluded that balls of Spanish lead were present at all five confirmed or suspected Coronado Expedition sites that my team analyzed. As a consequence of the lead analysis, I modified my ever-evolving exploration model to include the likelihood of Spanish lead at Coronado sites.

The written history of post-Coronado Spaniards arriving in Río Arriba impacts any temporal interpretation of metal artifacts found in that region. Given that only about forty years separate the departure of Coronado from Río Arriba and the arrival of the Chamuscado-Rodríquez and the Espejo-Beltrán parties, and that only about fifty-six years separate Coronado from the 1598 Oñate arrival, it follows that sixteenth-century objects were carried by all these parties. This complicates any effort to assign a Coronado presence based purely upon the presence of sixteenth-century artifacts.

The Chamuscado-Rodríquez party carried "provisions and articles for barter." Recorded testimony of the soldiers accompanying the party included an example of barter: "We gave them some iron, sleigh bells, playing cards, and various trinkets… They gave us corn, beans, calabashes, cotton blankets, and tanned buffalo hides." Diego Pérez de Luxán, reporting on the Espejo-Beltrán expedition, wrote that on 23 February 1583, at Cachiti (Katisthya, modern San Felipe, New Mexico), "We bartered sleigh bells and small iron articles for very fine buffalo hides." Antonio de Espejo reported that he "gave beads, hats and other articles" and "trinkets of little value" to the Indians. In 1590, Captain Juan Morlete was sent to arrest Castaño de Sosa. His instructions included having "small articles of little value which you can carry with you and apportion among the natives." Oñate's contract called for him to carry "articles to trade and to give to the Indians." Two inspections of his cargo reported on "barter articles" and these included beads of many varieties, combs, knives, hatchets, scissors, needles, mirrors, yarn, earrings, hats, hawks-bells, medals of alloy, jet rings, alloy finger rings, thimbles, tassels, amulets, whistles, glass buttons, flutes, awls, thread, and children's trumpets. These examples show that beginning in 1581, and accelerating rapidly in 1598, appeared an infusion of Spanish objects into Río Arriba. (51)

With respect to specific items, these reports demonstrate that Spanish copper bells reappeared in Río Arriba just thirty-nine years after Coronado departed, and that beads reappeared by at least 1582 with Espejo. Oñate alone carried "three bunches of glass beads, each one containing 10,000 beads… [and] forty-five thousand small glass beads… [and] forty-six bunches of small glass beads of 1,000 beads per bunch." Respecting bells and beads, archaeologist Kathleen Deagan published data proposing that 1550 and 1575 were dates of style termination of certain Spanish copper bells and that some bead styles became extinct between 1540 and 1581. Even if such were indeed the case, specific styles of bells and beads alone might not serve to distinguish between Coronado and post-Coronado classification of such objects found in Río Arriba because obsolete styles might have been carried by arriving Europeans. (52)

The Coronado Expedition carried crossbows. I have previously reported that archaeologist Frank Gagné claimed that the "Chamuscado – Rodríquez – López and the Espejo – Luxán expeditions" also used crossbows. Were this the case, post-Coronado crossbow boltheads could have reached Zuni or Rio Arriba with those 1580s expeditions. However, Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint strenuously dispute Gagné's contention. "In this unsupported assertion, Gagné was simply wrong; there is absolutely no mention of crossbows in the documentation of either of those expeditions.” In the early 1990s the Flints studied the published documents dealing with both of those expeditions, as well as those of twenty-four other sixteenth-century expeditions, specifically picking out all references to items of material culture, including arms and armaments. They found no references to crossbows in the documents relating to either of those expeditions. My own research found no mention of crossbows in the accounts of Castaño or Morlete, or in the muster of the Oñate expedition.

There is, however, an unfortunate insinuation that crossbows in the New World were not obsolete in 1596. Pedro Ponce de León, a rival of Oñate for "exploration, pacification and settlement of New Mexico", in his attempt to gain the royal contract, claimed he offered more than Oñate. Included in this greater offering were "fifty crossbows," these being items specifically mentioned as absent in the Oñate inventory. Military arms historian Harold L. Peterson describes the Ponce de León offering as the "last known reference to crossbows for use in America." Oñate, not Ponce de León, however, won the contract, and Hammond and Rey presented evidence that these fifty crossbows never reached New Spain. Providing still more evidence of the disappearance of crossbows, Peterson wrote, "By the middle of the 16th century, however, the crossbow had been largely superseded as a military weapon in Europe… A few crossbowmen were listed in the Spanish forts of St. Augustine and Santa Elena in 1570, 1573, but they were distinctly of secondary importance." The Flints allow that "after the 1560s, there may have been an occasional stray [crossbow], but they were definitely no longer a weapon of choice and were definitely not present in numbers sufficient to account for the many crossbow boltheads that have been recovered in recent years in the Southwest." Haring reported that while crossbows were mandatory on vessels in 1552, by 1573 they were "superseded by the more effective arquebus." Given this history, crossbow boltheads in the Southwest are almost certainly from the Coronado Expedition. (53)

When interpreting the age of a metal artifact specifically from Hawikku, one must keep in mind the number of people, the dates, and the duration of presence of groups that could have left metal residuals there. The Flints estimate that 2,000-2,800 people began the expedition. Europeans, not Indios Amigos, were almost certainly the dominant metal-bearers of the excursion. At the time of the conquest of Hawikku the expedition was divided. Beginning on 7 July 1540, the 80 - 110 European metal-bearers and more than 700 Indios Amigos of the Advance Party began the occupation of Hawikku. Some three months later, on about 8 October 1540, the Following Army joined the Advance Party, thereby increasing the population of metal-bearers to 400 European men-at-arms plus European women and children. The Following Army stayed for twenty days before departing toward the east. In total, this first large occupation lasted nearly four months and was likely the biggest occupation ever of Hawikku. (54)

The next and final Coronado occupation of Hawikku occurred when the Retreating Army of 1,550-2,350 people arrived in early spring of 1542 on its return to Mexico. The expedition was undivided at that time, thereby providing a second large gathering of European metal-bearers, perhaps about three hundred. Because of normal usage and attrition, these bearers likely had less metal than those in 1540. The Retreating Army departed Hawikku for New Spain on 5 April 1542 after having occupied the pueblo for a duration likely measured in days not weeks, a time span that provided another opportunity for European articles to have been lost and to become future artifacts. (55) These occupations by Coronado total about four months of presence at Hawikku by at least one hundred metal-bearers, with one of those months having more than four hundred metal-bearers.

In contrast to the Coronado occupations, the first measurable European presence at Zuni after Coronado occurred in 1583 when about thirty members of the Espejo – Beltrán party sojourned for two months at Hawikku - Halona. There is no record of a larger expeditionary party arriving after Espejo – Beltrán. These numbers show that the Coronado Expedition stayed longer and contained more European metal bearers than any other non-Native American presence ever at Hawikku. With this dominance of presence at Hawikku by Coronado metal-bearers, it is relevant to artifact interpretation to recognize that the cargo of the Coronado Expedition during its time in Hawikku included many domestic items. Such a concentration of European domestic items did not ever occur again at Hawikku. This significantly elevates the likelihood of domestic artifacts found at Hawikku being of the Coronado Expedition rather than those of later travelers.

Interpretation of the age of metal artifacts found in Tiwa country, just as at Hawikku, must consider the number of people, the dates, and the duration of presence of groups that could have left metal residuals there, as well as conditions at Tiguex itself. Of all the groups of metal bearers arriving prior to Oñate in 1598, the Coronado assemblage of 1540-1542 was by far the most numerous and of the longest duration. By comparison, the much smaller Chamuscado, Espejo, Castaño and Humaña parties were in Tiwa country only briefly, thereby offering less opportunity for objects to be lost or discarded than had been the case with Coronado. The brevity of these later visits was likely due to abandonment of Tiguex, a factor that must be considered when interpreting the source of metal artifacts found there. Riley described the invasion of Tiguex by Coronado as the effective beginning of the end of Tiguex. "A significant development in the winter of 1540-41 was the destruction of all the Tiguex pueblos… Thirteen of the towns deserted by the Indians were looted and dismantled by the Spaniards… By the spring of 1541 Tiguex was largely destroyed. All the towns were occupied or burned." Forty years later, when Chamuscado arrived, "Tiguex was making a recovery but the scars of the Coronado occupation were still very real… Except for Chamuscado, no Spanish party after Coronado really had much interest in Tiguex, probably because there was little left but poverty. Espejo concerned himself with the western pueblos and the Keres, and Castaño with Pecos, the Tewa, and Keres. Oñate, though he occupied the whole pueblo area, centered his activities on the Tewa and the Keres." Riley points out that "By Oñate's time, the first missionaries did not seem to consider the area very important – only two missions were established there, both around or after 1610 with two others made visitas. Missions were at Sandia and Isleta and visitas at Puaray and Alameda. These four towns were the Tiguex of the 17th century." Respecting this history, it is most likely that sixteenth-century Spanish artifacts found in Tiguex are from Coronado, although one cannot exclude such artifacts as being from a later Spanish presence. (56)

The historical record best guides interpretation concerning the bearers of Spanish lead. This record shows that firearms, therefore lead, traveled with the Coronado Expedition. I have pointed out that the expedition had access to Tarascan lead, not northcentral Mexico lead, thereby increasing the likelihood that Mexican lead of that expedition was from western Mexico. Lead and lead shot were amongst the inventory of the post-Coronado expeditions to Río Arriba. I have demonstrated that this lead was most likely from northcentral Mexico, readily available as a by-product of the extensive post-Coronado silver mining in that region, thereby essentially eliminating it from being a Coronado residual, and I have reasoned that it is unlikely that post-Coronado expeditions carried Spanish lead to Río Arriba because of the lead shortage in Spain and the availability of Mexican lead along the travel route.

Exactly where a particular lead shot was found strengthens or weakens its relationship to Coronado. I previously proposed that "Spanish lead found within specific geographical corridors is diagnostic of the Coronado Expedition." (57) My team currently considers Spanish lead shot found along the route of the Coronado Expedition from the Río San Pedro to the Río Bermejo campsite (Río Zuni southwest of Hawikku) to be artifacts that are temporally restricted to the sixteenth-century, thereby indicating the presence of the expedition, and joining crossbow boltheads, and certain bells and beads, as decisive evidence of the Captain General along that trace. The team's current hypothesis for lead shot found at Hawikku and beyond is that shot made of northcentral Mexican lead are almost certainly of post-Coronado age, and that lead shot of Tarascan or Spanish sources are more likely than not a product of the Coronado Expedition. Consequently, when Spanish lead is discovered with generic artifacts that could be sixteenth-century, especially if found south of Hawikku to the international border, the lead serves to elevate the likelihood of these non-temporal artifacts being residuals of the Coronado Expedition.

The Exploration Model North of Doubtful Canyon

The discovery of Spanish lead and sixteenth-century nails and tacks at Doubtful Canyon supports my exploration model and extends the artifact-evidenced Coronado Trail to the modern Arizona – New Mexico stateline. This success in Doubtful Canyon accredits the team's January 2005 decision to explore Doubtful Canyon before Whitlock Cienega (Cienega Salada) as the next camp north of Apache Pass.

I suspended consideration of Whitlock Cienega because that route leads through Ash Peak Pass to the Río Gila near Sheldon, Arizona. Respected local ranchers, lion hunters, and prospectors declared that a climb onto the Mogollon Rim through the Summit Mountains above Sheldon would be unattainable for a group such as Coronado's. These same natives proclaimed that Blue Creek is the only place such an expedition could climb onto the Mogollon Rim and proceed toward Cíbola.

The current exploration model predicts that from Doubtful Canyon, Coronado crossed sparse grassland to the Río Gila to camp at Hidden Valley the night of 24 June 1540. Hidden Valley hides between two major box canyons. It is an "only" spot – the only place travelers can reach or depart the river on both sides to proceed in a direction other than alongside the river. This forces the regional trail to be there.

The northern salida from Hidden Valley is Blue Creek, which joins the Río Gila from the north, providing a corridor pointing toward Cíbola. After two days of travel through meager grassland, Coronado reached the Mule Creek savanna north of Blue Creek that extends northward to the Slash SI Ranch on Big Dry Creek. There the grass disappeared and the terrain became doblada [up-and-down] until the expedition reached Alma, New Mexico, on the Río San Francisco, another "only" spot, and the location of the celebrated Río Balsas crossing. From Hidden Valley to Alma, the trail lay almost exactly due north. This route was predicted in January 2005 and remains in effect after two apparent affirmations of the exploration model. Our current exploration proceeds along this trace, and we have added a new discovery at the Slash SI Ranch on Big Dry Creek. (58)

Acknowledgments

The Coronado Exploration Program is grateful for the support, counsel and encouragement of Carroll L. and Brent Locke Riley, Richard and Shirley Cushing Flint, Durwood Ball and the New Mexico Historical Review staff, Bernard L. "Bunny" Fontana, and the field team composed of John Blennert, Gordon Fraser, Loro Lorentzen, Dan Kaspar, and Marc Kaspar. My warmest abrazo for each of you.

Lead isotope ratio analysis could not have occurred without the professional participation of Dr. Franco Marcantonio, professor, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M University, and Dr. Michael J. Rothman of Michael J. Rothman & Associates, Hopewell Junction, New York. Gentlemen, thank you kindly for your respected contributions.

James B. Legg, collections specialist at the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, continues to provide confidence-inspiring identification of our artifacts, a major contribution deserving of deference and for which we are forever grateful. A special thanks to archaeologist Pearce Paul Creasman, who has generously contributed x-ray and conservation technology for our program since its inception. Stanley South, Chester DePratter and Kathleen Deagan have supported and encouraged us, and have made available the resources of their respective institutions, and to them we send our respectful appreciation. John Kessell contributed respected and appreciated suggestions for the manuscript. The images and maps presented here were graphically enhanced by the considerable skills of Steven I. Rothman, and to him I direct a nod of warm appreciation.

Without exception the private landowners in Doubtful Canyon and points north wish to remain unnamed, and all have requested that I not disclose the exact locations of artifacts we discovered. Permission by these landowners, of course, allowed this exploration to proceed, and I will graciously respect their wishes.

Gentleman Ed Barnes, a pioneer, guide and keen observer of the Peloncillo Mountains, now deceased, merits special recognition for his contribution to exploration at Doubtful Canyon.

(1) For a vivid account from the Zuni perspective of the events surrounding the battle at Hawikku see Edmund J. Ladd, "Zuni on the Day the Men in Metal Arrived," in The Coronado Expedition to Tierra Nueva(Niwot,Colorado: The University Press of Colorado, 1997), 225-33. According to the anonymous author of "Traslado de las Nuevas", the rocks hurled at Coronado by the warriors were piedra perdida. This phrase suggests "wild pitch." Perhaps the rock fight appeared as misguided missiles to the Spaniards, but it is most probable that the warriors were expert rock slingers who most often hit what they targeted, including especially the golden, feather-adorned Capt. Gen. Sources for the Spanish side of the story, some of them contradictory, include: Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, “Vázquez de Coronado’s Letter to the Viceroy, August 3, 1540,” in Documents of the Coronado Expedition, 1539-1542: "They Were Not Familiar with His Majesty, nor Did They Wish to be His Subjects," ed., and trans., Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2005): 256-58; Pedro de Castañeda de Nájera, “The Relación de la Jornada de Cíbola, Pedro de Castañeda de Nájera’s Narrative, 1560s (Copy, 1596),” in Documents of the Coronado Expedition, Flint and Flint, 445-46; “Traslado de las Nuevas (Anonymous Narrative), 1540,” in Documents of the Coronado Expedition, 1539-1542: Flint and Flint, eds., 295: “The Relación del Suceso (Anonymous Narrative), 1540s,” in Documents of the Coronado Expedition, 1539-1542: Flint and Flint, eds., 503; Note 40 in Documents of the Coronado Expedition, 1539-1542: Flint and Flint, eds., 691; Domingo Martín, Fourth de oficio Witness, "A Transcript of the Testimony" in Richard Flint, Great Cruelties Have Been Reported (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2002), 101-02; Juan de Contreras, , Fifth de oficio Witness, "A Transcript of the Testimony" in Richard Flint, Great Cruelties Have Been Reported (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2002), 117,119; Rodrigo Ximón, , Sixth de oficio Witness, "A Transcript of the Testimony" in Richard Flint, Great Cruelties Have Been Reported (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2002), 135; Cristóbal de Escobar, Seventh de oficio Witness, "A Transcript of the Testimony" in Richard Flint, Great Cruelties Have Been Reported (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2002), 153-54; Juan Troyano, Eighth de oficio Witness, "A Transcript of the Testimony" in Richard Flint, Great Cruelties Have Been Reported (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2002), 179-80; Rodrigo de Frías, Ninth de oficio Witness, "A Transcript of the Testimony" in Richard Flint, Great Cruelties Have Been Reported (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2002), 200-01; Melchior Pérez, Tenth de oficio Witness, "A Transcript of the Testimony" in Richard Flint, Great Cruelties Have Been Reported (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2002), 220-21; Pedro de Ledesma, Eleventh de oficio Witness, "A Transcript of the Testimony" in Richard Flint, Great Cruelties Have Been Reported (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2002), 243-45; Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, Sworn Statement of the Governor, "A Transcript of the Testimony" in Richard Flint, Great Cruelties Have Been Reported (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2002), 297-98.
(2) Nugent Brasher, “The Chichilticale Camp of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado: The Search for the Red House,” New Mexico Historical Review 82 (fall 2007): 433–68; "The Red House Camp and the Captain General: The 2009 Report on the Coronado Expedition Campsite of Chichilticale," New Mexico Historical Review 84 (winter 2009): 1-64; "Spanish Lead Shot of the Coronado Expedition: A Progress Report on Isotope Analysis of Lead from Five Sites," New Mexico Historical Review 85 (winter 2010): 79-81.
(3) See the analysis at Chichilticale.com. Brasher, "The Red House Camp," 54; "Spanish Lead Shot," 80; Charles M. Haecker, "Tracing Coronado’s Route through Trace Element Analysis." Paper presented in the symposium, Between Entrada and Salida: New Mexico Perspectives on the Coronado Expedition. Charles Haecker and Clay Mathers, organizers. Society for Historical Archaeology Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico, January 12, 2008. "Muster Roll of the Expedition, Compostela, February 22, 1540," in Documents of the Coronado Expedition, 1539-1542: "They Were Not Familiar with His Majesty, nor Did They Wish to be His Subjects," ed., and trans., Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 2005): 152-162. Pedro de Castañeda de Nájera, “The Relación de la Jornada de Cíbola, Pedro de Castañeda de Nájera’s Narrative, 1560s (Copy, 1596),” in Documents of the Coronado Expedition, Flint and Flint, 449, 457. The analysis was influenced by a lively verbal joust in 1992-93 among more than a dozen of the most respected researchers in the field of lead isotope ratio analysis for archaeological purposes. (Archaeometry 34, 1, (1992) 73-105; Archaeometry 34, 2, (1992) 311-317, 327-329; Archaeometry 35, 2, (1993) 241-263.) The discussion centered on methods of interpretation of isotope data, with an emphasis on the problems of overlapping populations, outliers, and selection of appropriate graphics. The team's internal analysis carefully considered the comments and techniques of these researchers. Of particular interest were the 1993 comments of nuclear physicist E. V. Sayre of the Conservation Analytical Laboratory of the Smithsonian Institution, who wrote: "The suggestion [offered by Reedy and Reedy in 1992] that one should use a computer program to rotate continuously the three-dimensional data through all arbitrary angles until one can visually observe, in a projection on a computer screen, the best separation between the specimens in question is an excellent one. The only reason we have not done so for our recent publications was that we did not have the required computer software readily at hand." (Archaeometry 35, 2, (1993) 250.) This caught my attention. I founded a petroleum exploration corporation in 1985. My company's internally developed, proprietary, Macintosh-based petroleum exploration workstation was fully operational by 1989. Included in a private placement offering in 1991 was a description of visual approach to data exploration utilizing the statistical software MacSpin and DataDesk. MacSpin displayed data in three-dimensional form and allowed the user to "spin" data, that is, to rotate it in three dimensions and to animate data points. MacSpin was first developed on a VAX computer at the Stanford Linear Accelerator, but was re-coded in the mid-1980s to operate in the Macintosh environment. DataDesk likewise offered the capability to "spin" the data. My company served as a development and test site for both MacSpin and DataDesk, and rotating data points in three-dimensional space was common practice by early 1988. The team's 2009 lead isotope analysis employed such rotation techniques and these significantly influenced sample identification conclusions. In addition to the internally generated analysis, Dr. Michael J. Rothman, Michael J. Rothman & Associates, LLC, an independent data analysis and visualization consulting company, in Hopewell, New York, conducted a comparative data analysis. The editors of the New Mexico Historical Review kindly granted my request to post the detailed lead analysis. The regional extent of the database was warranted by recognition that the Coronado Expedition included members from all parts of Spain, as well as Crete, Sicily and Italy. For example, expeditionary Diego de Candia from Crete carried an arquebus. (Flint and Flint, Documents of the Coronado Expedition, 161, Appendix 3, 605-615.). The lead isotope ratio database was assembled from the following published sources listed in chronological order oldest to youngest publication date: G. L. Cumming and S. E. Kesler, "Source of Lead in Central American and Caribbean Mineralization," Earth and Planetary Science Letters 31 (1976): 262-268; T. E. Ewing, "Lead Isotope Data from Mineral Deposits of Southern New Mexico: a Reinterpretation," Economic Geology 74 (1979): 678-684; George L. Cumming, Stephen E. Kesler and D. Krstic, "Isotopic Composition of Lead in Mexican Mineral Deposits," Economic Geology 74 (1979): 1395-1407; George L. Cumming, Stephen E. Kesler and Dragan Krstic, "Source of Lead in Central American and Caribbean Mineralization, II. Lead Isotope Provinces," Earth and Planetary Science Letters 56 (1981): 199-209; J. E. Dayton and A. Dayton, "Uses and Limitations of Lead Isotopes in Archaeology," in Proceedings of the 24th International Archaeometry Symposium, eds. J. S. Olin & M. J. Blackman (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1986) 13-41; G. L. Cumming and S. E. Kesler, "Lead Isotopic Composition of the Oldest Volcanic Rocks of the Eastern Greater Antilles Island Arc. Chemical Geology 65 (1987): 15-23; Antonio Arribas, Jr. and Richard M. Tosdal, "Isotopic Composition of Pb in Ore Deposits of the Betic Cordillera, Spain: Origin and Relationship to Other European Deposits," Economic Geology 89 (1994): 1074-1093; Z. Stos-Gale, N. H. Gale, J. Houghton and R. Speakman, "Lead Isotope Data from the Isotrace Laboratory, Oxford: Archaeometry Data Base I, Ores from the Western Mediterranean," Archaeometry 37, 2 (1995): 407-415; Dorothy Hosler and Andrew Macfarlane, "Copper Sources, Metal Production, and Metals Trade in Late Postclassic Mesoamerica," Science 272 (1996): 1819-1824; F. Velasco, A. Pesquera and J. M. Herrero, "Lead Isotope Study of Zn-Pb Ore Deposits Associated with the Basque-Cantabrian Basin and Paleozoic Basement, Northern Spain," Mineralium Deposita 31 (1996): 84-92; B. M. Rohl, "Lead Isotope Data from the Isotrace Laboratory, Oxford: Archaeometry Data Base 2, Galena from Britian and Ireland," Archaeometry 38, 1 (1996): 165-180; Z. A. Stos-Gale, N. H. Gale and N. Annetts, "Lead Isotope Data from the Isotrace Laboratory, Oxford: Archaeometry Data Base 3, Ores from the Aegean, Part I," Archaeometry 38, 2 (1996): 381-390; A. Canals and E. Cardellach, "Ore lead and Sulphur Isotope Pattern from the Low-Temperature Veins of the Catalonian Coastal Ranges (NE Spain)," Mineralium Deposita 32 (1997): 243-249; N. H. Gale, Z. A. Stos-Gale, G. Maliotis and N. Annetts, "Lead Isotope Data from the Isotrace Laboratory, Oxford: Archaeometry Data Base 4, Ores from Cyprus," Archaeometry 39, 1 (1997): 237-246; E. Marcoux, "Lead Isotope Systematics of the Giant Massive Sulphide Deposits in the Iberian Pyrite Belt," Mineralium Deposita 33 (1998): 45-58; Judith A. Habicht-Mauche, "Stable Lead Isotope Analysis of Río Grande Glaze Paints and Ores Using ICP-MS: A Comparison of Acid Dissolution and Laser Ablation Techniques," Journal of Archaeological Science 29 (2002): 1043-1053; Casilada Ruiz, Antonio Arribas and Antonio Arribas, Jr., "Mineralogy and Geochemistry of the Masa Valverde Blind Massive Sulphide Deposit, Iberian Pyrite Belt (Spain)," Ore Geology Reviews 19 (2002): 1-22; J. F. Santos Zalduegui, S. Garcia De Madinabeitia and J. I. Gil Ibarguchi, "A Lead Isotope Database: The Los Pedroches-Alcudia Area (Spain); Implications for Archaeometallurgical Connections Across Southwestern and Southeastern Iberia," Archaeometry 46, 4 (2004): 625-634; Fernando Tornos and Massimo Chiaradia, "Plumbotectonic Evolution of the Ossa Morena Zone, Iberian Peninsula: Tracing the Influence of Mantle-Crust Interaction in the Ore-Forming Processes," Economic Geology 99 (2004): 965-985; Michael B. Rabinowitz, "Lead Isotopes in Soils Near Five Historic American Lead Smelters and Refineries," Science of the Total Environment 346 (2005): 138-148; A. M. Thibodeau, S. J. Killick, J. Ruiz, J. T. Chesley, K. Deagan, J. M. Cruxent and W. Lyman, "The Strange Case of the Earliest Silver Extraction by European Colonists in the New World," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104, 9 (2007): 3663-3666; Sanghamitra Ghosh, "Heavy Stable Isotope Investigations in Environmental Science and Archaeology," Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Ph. D. Dissertation Summer Semester 2008; James K. Mortensen, Brian V. Hall, Thomas Bissig, Richard M. Friedman, Thomas Danielson, James Oliver, David A. Rhys, Kika V. Ross and Janet E. Gabites, "Age and Paleotectonic Setting of Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide Deposits in the Guerrero Terrane of Central Mexico: Constraints from U-Pb Age and Pb Isotope Studies," Economic Geology 103 (2008): 117-140.
(4) Mary H. [Honorhea] Braidfoot, US Patent 1094636, 20 December 1937. Brasher, "The Chichilticale Camp," 461; "The Red House Camp," 10, 44.
(5) Fred Braidfoot, US Patent 67013570, 15 March 1919. Edwin R. Sweeney, personal communication with author, 21 August 2009: "The papers of Gerenville Goodwin, written in the mid-1930s, contain the place name Tsisl-Inoni-bi-yi-tu, which is the Apache name for "Stein's Pass," or Doubtful Canyon."
(6) James B. Legg, e-mail to author, 26 January 2009. "Your nails are very nice – they are easily 16th century, although they could be later as well. In any case they are very much like our Santa Elena nails, except in much better condition than most of ours. We only see them this nice when they have been heavily burned." Jennifer M. Hamilton and William H. Hodges, "The Aftermath of Puerto Real: Archaeology at Bayahá," in Puerto Real: The Archaeology of a Sixteenth-Century Spanish Town in Hispaniola, ed. Kathleen Deagan (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1995), 409, Fig. 12.15. Eugene Lyon, e-mail to author, 17 October 2009. For a discussion and photographs of estoperoles see Stanley South, Russell K. Skowronek, and Richard E. Johnson, Spanish Artifacts from Santa Elena, Anthropological Studies, no. 7 (Columbia: South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, 1988), 34, 39-40, 44-45, esp. 57-58.
(7) Walter B. Lang, The First Overland Mail: Butterfield Trail (Private Printing, 1940) p 119.
(8) Data used for my climate reconstruction is from Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, "El Malpais Precipitation Reconstruction," www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/drought/drght_grissno.html and ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pob/data/paleo/treering/reconstructions/newmexico/malpais_recon.txt. Cozzens Lake is my name for the spot in Doubtful Canyon referred to by Samuel Woodworth Cozzens as "Stein's Peak Lake, about three miles from the [Steins Butterfield] station," which Cozzens described as a "little lake scarcely a hundred and fifty feet in breadth." Cozzens waxed romantic in his exaggerated portrait of the location, claiming fifty-foot tall saguaro cacti around the lake and the reflection of a "snow-clad" Steins Peak in the water. With the help of Edwin R. Sweeney, I was able to confirm that Cozzens was at the spot in middle August 1859, casting doubt upon snow being atop the 5,867 foot (1,788 m) mountain. My field reconnaissance found no evidence of saguaro cacti, alive or dead. Verified, however, is Cozzen's claim that the lake drains in two directions. This is because the lake, hidden from the view of Butterfield Trail travelers by a low hill, is formed by a shallow depression at the western head of Doubtful Arroyo that captures rainwater. The lake normally drains eastward down Doubtful Arroyo, but when it is full, water also spills over the edge to the west to escape out West Doubtful Arroyo. Cozzens happened to see the lake full of water because he was there during the peak of the summer monsoon. Samuel Woodworth Cozzens, The Marvelous Country (Minneapolis: Ross & Haines, Inc., 1967), 225-234. Edwin R. Sweeney, letter to author, 5 February 2006.
(9) Richard Flint, e-mail message to author, 10 November 2009. John H. Elliott, a British historian now in his 80s, is a world-renowned writer on Spain and especially its ecomonic situation. Readers wanting a more detailed description of the Spanish economy during the sixteenth-century should consult: J. H. Elliott, Imperial Spain 1469 – 1716 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1964), 172-191, 279-315.
(10) Clarence Henry Haring, Trade and Navigation Between Spain and the Indies in the Time of the Hapsburgs (Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1964), 16, 71, 201-15, 272, 274, 280 >>>> EDITOR…in quotes 208, 215, 272, 274, 280; Francisco Gutiérrez Guzmán, Minería en Sierra Morena (Linares, Spain: Colegio Oficial de Ingenieros Técnicos de Minas de Linares, 2007), 171-201, esp. 171, 181, 183-84, 186, 189-92, 195, 200-01; Ramón Fernández Soler, El distrito minero Linares: La Carolina (Madrid: 1954), quoted in Gutiérrez Guzmán, 195; AGI, Correos, 457B, R.2, N.6. Both Haring and Guzmán reported lining ship's hulls with lead beginning in 1514. Haring provided a measure of the amount of lead required: Haring, Trade and Navigation, 277-78.
(11) Brasher, "The Red House Camp," 40-48.
(12) Alfred Barnaby Thomas, Forgotten Frontiers: A Study of the Spanish Indian Policy of Don Juan Bautista de Anza, Governor of New Mexico 1777-1787 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1932): 207-215, map in sleeve. Notable as temporal benchmarks, Captain Manuel de Echeagaray and Captain José de Zúñiga passed through the region in 1788 and 1795, respectively.
(13) Carl D. W. Hays, “David E. Jackson,” in The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West: Biographical Sketches of the Participants by Scholars of the Subject and with Introductions by the Editor, ed. LeRoy R. Hafen, vol. 9 (Glendale, CA: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1972), 232-233.
(14) Robert Eccleston, Overland to California on the Southwestern Trail, 1849: Diary of Robert Eccleston, ed. George P. Hammond and Edward H. Howes, Bancroft Library Publications, no. 2 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1950), 174–186.
(15) John Russell Bartlett, Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua, Connected with the United States and Mexican Boundary Commission during the years 1850, ‘51, ‘52, and ’53, Río Grande Classic series (1854; repr., Chicago: Río Grande Press, 1965), 367-370. Of interest is Bartlett's reference to Steins Peak: "Our guide here pointed out to us El Peloncillo, or Sugar Loaf, a mountain of this form in the high range alluded to, with an opening near it…” (Bartlett, Personal Narrative, 364.) Peloncillo means “little bald ones,” or, “little baldies,” from the word pelón meaning bald, as a bald head. Bartlett wrote Peloncillo as “sugar loaf.” The correct word for sugar loaf is spelled piloncillo. The Spanish letter “i” is pronounced like the English letter “e” as in "seed." I suspect that Bartlett heard the Spanish word piloncillo, with an “i,” but apparently spelled what he heard, meaning he spelled the word with an English-sounding “e” resulting in Peloncillo. Mexican sugar loaf candy called piloncillo is brown, granular and cone-shaped. The mountains called the Peloncillo are brown and barren of vegetation; they are bald. The word Peloncillo fits them perfectly. Steins Peak is brown, granular and cone-shaped; the word piloncillo fits it nicely. By chance, therefore, both words are appropriate for either the range or the individual peak. Spanish-speaking readers who see the actual mountains would readily accept the moniker Peloncillo Mountains. (Nugent Brasher, The Search for Chichilticale (Unpublished manuscript in author's possession, 2006) 122-123) Diarist and soldier Diego Pérez de Luxán described camping the night before the 1583 Espejo expedition entered Zuni at a "very high rock in the shape of a sugar loaf we named El Real del Pilón." (Hammond and Rey, Rediscovery of New Mexico, 183.)

(16) George Hackler, The Butterfield Trail in New Mexico (Las Cruces, NM: Yucca Enterprises, 2005) 13-15; Personal communication with author 2 February 2009. North of Kate Lyall's house, the canyon narrows such that post-Bartlett wagoneers trimmed away part of the canyonside to allow passage of their rigs.
(17) Ibid, 190, 196.
(18) Nugent Brasher, The Bootheel: A Critique of Southwestern Archaeological Exploration (Unpublished manuscript in author's possession, 2004) 191-192.
(19) Ibid, 194-197.
(20) Nugent Brasher, Pioneers of Doubtful Canyon (Unpublished manuscript available in Special Collection of Lordsburg-Hidalgo Library, Lordsburg, NM, 2006) 1-18; Kate Lyall, US Patent 940394, 20 June 1924; Elmer A. Lyall, US Patent 938296, 15 May 1924.
(21) James B. Legg, "Report on Doubtful Canyon Artifacts," 5 February 2009.
(22) Brasher, "The Red House Camp," 40-48.
(23) Derek Jordan, The Sierra Vista Herald/Review, 26 March 2009; Gordon Fraser, e-mail to author, 25 March 2009; Clay Riggs, e-mail to author, 27 March 2009.
(24) Brasher, "The Red House Camp," 24 Fig. 12, number 23 on Map 2.
(25) Brasher, "The Red House Camp," 54.
(26) Brasher, "The Red House Camp," 4, 12 (Map 2 number 38 and BP are locations of tested rock fragments.).
(27) John Francis Bannon, The Spanish Borderlands Frontier 1513-1821 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1974), 28-29. Additional silver strikes near Zacatecas included Sombrerete in 1558, Fresnillo in 1566 and Indé in 1567. (Ramon Eduardo Ruiz, Triumphs and Tragedy: A History of the Mexican People (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1992) 74; Carroll L. Riley, Río del Norte (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1995), 226.
(28) George P. Hammond and Agapito Rey, The Rediscovery of New Mexico 1580-1594 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1966), 5.
(29) Hal Jackson, Following the Royal Road: A Guide to the Historic Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2006), 158; Hammond and Rey, "Rediscovery of New Mexico," 140.
(30) Castañeda, "Relación," 442; Antonio de Mendoza, "The Viceroy's Letter to the King, Jacona, April 17, 1540," in Documents of the Coronado Expedition, 1539-1542, Flint and Flint, 234, 239; Elinore M. Barrett, The Mexican Colonial Copper Industry (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987) 5, 7; J. Benedict Warren, The Conquest of Michoacán: The Spanish Domination of the Tarascan Kingdom in Western Mexico, 1521-1530 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985) 2. Post-Coronado mines in Sinaloa are shown by George L. Cumming, Stephen E. Kesler and D. Krstic, "Isotopic Composition of Lead in Mexican Mineral Deposits," Economic Geology 74 (1979): 1396, Fig. 1.
(31) Marc Simmons, The Last Conquistador: Juan de Oñate and the Settling of the Far Southwest (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991) 49, 91; Carroll L. Riley, The Frontier People: The Greater Southwest in the Protohistoric Period (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987), 23-25; Riley, Río del Norte, 226-228, 247; Bannon, The Spanish Borderlands, 32-33; John L. Kessell, Kiva, Cross & Crown: The Pecos Indians and New Mexico, 1540-1840 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987), 77; Jackson, Following the Royal Road, 93-94.
(32) Riley, The Frontier People, 23; Riley, Río del Norte, 227-233; Carroll L. Riley, "Puaray and Coronado's Tiguex," in Collected Papers in Honor of Erik Kellerman Reed, Papers of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico:6 (Albuquerque: Albuquerque Archaeological Society Press, 1981), 197; Albert H. Schroeder and Dan S. Matson, A Colony on the Move: Gaspar Castaño de Sosa's Journal 1590-1591 (Salt Lake City: Alphabet Printing Company, 1965) 167; Kessell, Kiva, Cross & Crown, 37-39; Bannon, The Spanish Borderlands, 29, 30, 32; Hammond and Rey, Rediscovery of New Mexico, 8-9, 12-13, 88-92, 104, 131, 137.
(33) Hammond and Rey, Rediscovery of New Mexico, 13-14, 106-107, 109, 111-112, 131-132, 137-38.
(34) Riley, The Frontier People, 167; Riley, Río del Norte, 233-239; Riley, Puaray and Coronado's Tiguex, 199-200; Kessell, Kiva, Cross & Crown, 41, 43; Bannon, The Spanish Borderlands, 32-33; Hammond and Rey, Rediscovery of New Mexico, 25, 153-155, 174-186, 194, 198-199, 203-207, 215, 225-228; Schroeder and Matson, A Colony on the Move, 167-68; Edward H. Spicer, Cycles of Conquest: The Impact of Spain, Mexico, and the United States on the Indians of the Southwest, 1533-1960 (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1962) 156. Dates and corresponding days reported by Diego Pérez de Luxán are from the Julian calendar. With respect to numbers of people and livestock on the Coronado Expedition, I have previously estimated that the undivided membership was composed of 400 – 500 Europeans, 1,300 Indios Amigos, and 6,500 livestock. (Brasher, "The Chichilticale Camp," 435; Brasher, "The Red House Camp," 55.) Per my request, Richard Flint kindly provided a revised count: "For several years now we have been estimating the size of the expedition when it began as most likely between 2,000 and 2,800 (400 European men-at-arms, 400 slaves and servants, unknown number of European women and children, 1,200-2,000 Mexican Indian allies). Attrition during the expedition is known even less well. As an educated guess we suggest that the loss through death and desertion was about 100 European men-at-arms (this includes those who were killed and those who fled from San Gerónimo, as well as 1 who went with fray Juan de Padilla to Quivira), at least 100 servants and slaves (their exposure to danger may well have been greater than that of their masters), unknown number of European women and children, at least 250 Indian allies. Thus, minimum losses, we think, would total 450. That yields a returning expedition size of perhaps 1,550-2,350. The number of livestock [present with the Retreating Army in 1542] would truly be a wild guess. They would have wanted to conserve some of the livestock for meat while on the return trail, if they could. In addition, some investors purchased livestock to bring on the expedition. They also would have wanted to return with as many as they could, if they couldn't cash out by selling them. There was certainly some loss of horses (perhaps 100). Mules probably died at a similar rate (100/558 or 18%). Since the expedition began with perhaps 1,000 mules, that means a loss of something like 180." (Richard Flint, e-mail message to author, 21 August 2009.) The number of livestock present with the expedition on the Great Plains is counted by Castaneda: "… one thousand horses and five hundred of our cows and more than five thousand rams and ewes…" (Castañeda, "Relación," 490.) Flint's suggested loss of animals diminishes this count to 6,220 head of livestock with the retreating army.
(35) Schroeder and Matson, A Colony on the Move, 11, 13, 38, 54, 65, 108, 111, 130, 141, 143, 146, 149-51, 159-76; Riley, The Frontier People, 167; Riley, Río del Norte, 242-244; Kessell, Kiva, Cross & Crown, 47; Hammond and Rey, Rediscovery of New Mexico, 245, 289, 291-295, 301, 305, 308, 312. Samuel Timken, "Gaspar Castaño de Sosa's ‘Illegal’ Entrada,” New Mexico Historical Review 85 (summer 2010): 269, 280 n. 29Evidence of removal of the carts brought by Castaño includes a report by Oñate that on 4 May 1598 at modern El Paso, Texas, his northbound party found "the ruts made by the ten carts that Castaño and Morlete took out from New Mexico." George P. Hammond and Agapito Rey, Don Juan de Oñate: Colonizer of New Mexico, 1595-1628, 2 vols. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1953) 316. Hammond and Rey report "Monday of Holy Week, March 29" as the date of Morlete's arrival in New Mexico, the date provided in the testimony of Juan Calderón on 18 March 1592. (Hammond and Rey, Rediscovery of New Mexico, 44) If New Mexico is considered to be Santo Domingo, and if the date is accepted without question, then Castaño took two weeks to travel only some thirty miles from Alameda to Santo Domingo, thereby increasing his time in the region by that duration. My check of the Julian calendar for that period conforms to the claim of 29 March 1591 being the Monday before Easter Sunday on 4 April. However, my reading of the tone of Castaño's Memoria, the paucity of information offered for his journey between Alameda and Santo Domingo, and the out-of-character slow travel of the usually rapidly moving Castaño, cause me to distrust the 29 March date.
(36) Riley, Río del Norte, 245-246; Hammond and Rey, Rediscovery of New Mexico, 323.
(37) David H. Snow, e-mail message to author, 17 November 2009; Hammond and Rey, Don Juan de Oñate, 215-216, 220, 224, 228-289; Riley, Puaray and Coronado's Tiguex, 200. Livestock consisted of horses, mules, oxen, sheep, goats, swine, and cattle. Provisions were carried by pack animals as well as carts and wagons. While I tallied 67 carts and wagons, the Record of the Marches by the Army reports, "Of the eighty-three carts and wagons which began the expedition, sixty-one arrived." This apparent inventory discrepancy, as well as an incomplete count of people, should not be unexpected. The Count of Monterrey reported to the King about Juan de Frías Salazar's inspection, writing that "there were some men in the neighborhood who had absented themselves… and [the inspector] was sure that they would join the expedition." (Hammond and Rey, Don Juan de Oñate, 320, 390.) The Coronado Expedition did not utilize carts; almost certainly the quantity of provisions arriving with Oñate far exceeded that of Coronado. After Oñate's arrival, a regular flow of provisions ensued, these brought by pack trains supplying the missions. (Carroll L. Riley, personal communication with author, 20 November 2009.)
(38) Simmons, The Last Conquistador, 127-132, 173-175; Hammond and Rey, Don Juan de Oñate, 327-328, 393-397, 1013; Bannon, The Spanish Borderlands, 39; Riley, The Frontier People, 317, 325.
(39) Spicer, Cycles of Conquest, 187-188, 197-198; Riley, The Frontier People, 167-168; Carroll L. Riley and Joni L. Manson, "The Cibola-Tiguex Route: Continuity and Change in the Southwest," New Mexico Historical Review 58, 4 (1983): 357-359.
(40) José de Zúñiga, “Una expedición militar de Tucson (Arizona) a Zuñi (Nuevo México),” in La España ilustrada en el Lejano Oeste: viajes y exploraciónes por las provincias y territorios hispánicos de Norteamérica en el siglo XVIII, ed. Amando Represa, Estudios de historia (Valladolid, Spain: Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Cultura y Bienstar Social, 1990), 89–100. Represa incorrectly reports the year of the expedition as 1791; the actual year was 1795.
(41) Thomas, Forgotten Frontiers, 171-207, map in sleeve.
(42) George P. Hammond, "The Zúñiga Journal, Tucson to Santa Fé : The Opening of a Spanish trade Route, 1788-1795," New Mexico Historical Review 6, 1 (1931): 40, 42-47. Bernard L. "Bunny" Fontana, in a 13 February 2010 e-mail message to the author wrote, "The likelihood is very strong that the mortal remains of Echeagaray are under glass and on display for all to see beneath the floor of the church in Arizpe. Two University of California archaeologists (Bob Heizer and Ted McCown) and a UC geologist (Howel Williams) were present when locals ripped out the old wooden floor of the church in Arizpe and were satisfied that Juan Bautistia de Anza the younger had been found when they came on a guy whose 18th-century officer's uniform was still somewhat intact. I had made the arrangements to get the Berkeley guys flown down there. A few years after the remains were exposed, someone discovered the actual burial record of Anza and found out that he was buried in a different place in the church (in a side chapel rather than in the nave). The officer – as identified by his clothing – actually exposed was very probably Echeagaray. I think the remains are still labeled as those of Anza in the church and by the townspeople." Carroll L. Riley, in a 30 May 2010 e-mail to the author, added to the thought of Echeagaray being buried in Arizpe. "Quite a number of years ago, [my wife] Brent and I were on one of the Gran Quivira tours. We stopped at Arizpe and my old friend and Jesuit Father Charlie Polzer was giving a lecture about Anza. He suggested that the remains in the church floor were really those of Echeagaray. A local young woman in the audience, I think she was head of the local historical society, vigorously disagreed with Charlie and there was a shouting match that went on for several minutes."
(43) José de Zúñiga, “Una expedición militar," 95. For a map of the Zuni area, see Madeline Turrell Rodack, "Cibola, From Fray Marcos to Coronado," in The Coronado Expedition to Tierra Nueva: The 1540-1542 Route Across the Southwest (Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 1997): 105, Map 2. On 22 August 2009, the author posed the following question to Carroll L. Riley and Richard Flint: "Do you think that the abandoned pueblo known as el agua caliente del Pueblo antiguo de Zuñi was Hawikku?" On 23 August 2009, in an e-mail to the author, Riley responded " sounds like Hawikuh or Kechipawan though the latter is unlikely, being tucked away on the mesa-top. Kwakina is out in that area, but I don't recall that there are obvious ruins. But Hawikuh certainly [is likely]." On 24 August 2009, in an e-mail to the author, Flint countered: "[Riley] referred to Kechiba:wa (or Kechibawan or Kechipawan) which would have been long abandoned at Zúñiga's time. But it was near the spot most commonly called Ojo Caliente on the Zuni Reservation. Near there, in the eighteenth century a "refugee village" was established. I imagine that's what Zúñiga was referring to. See Ferguson and Hart, A Zuni Atlas, numerous pages.)" On 26 August 2009 in an e-mail message to the author, Riley wrote," Well, yes, as Ferguson and Hart among others point out, Ojo Caliente (Kyana-a) was a farming village in historic times. But, even if Ojo Caliente was deserted at the time he came through, Zúñiga would probably think of the nearby impressive RUINS of Hawikuh when mentioning the site." The question is relevant in determining from which direction Coronado entered Hawikku. The author believes that Coronado and Zúñiga traveled much of the same trail, with an important exception being that Zúñiga departed Coronado's trail at the Red Hill cinder cone and lava flow near modern Red Hill, New Mexico. Zúñiga wrote that after crossing a "sexa [ceja] de malpais" (eyebrow-shaped flow of lava rock), and bearing to the north-northeast, he reached Zuni Salt Lake, which he described as "very beautiful salt flats with footprints and trails headed in various directions." From there Zúñiga continued to Halona, arriving from the southeast. (José de Zúñiga, “Una expedición militar," 94-95.) By departing Halona to the southwest and reaching Hawikku, Zúñiga would have rejoined Coronado's presumed route. In an e-mail message on 23 August 2007, Richard Flint provided his interpretation of the Spanish word sexa: "Probably the word is 'ceja,' which is used frequently in geographical/topographical contexts to refer to a surface stratum of rock visible in an escarpment that is usually significantly different in color from the underlying rock strata. More generically, it can refer to a cliff or steep bedrock face of any sort." The author responded that same day: "The lava flow at Red Hill forms an escarpment of BLACK rock sitting on BUFF-COLORED Colorado Plateau bedrock. The contrast is striking – this is the only place such occurs along the route most likely followed by Zuniga." The word ceja most commonly means eyebrow; the Red Hill lava flow is so shaped.
(44) Eleanor B. Adams, "Bishop Tamaron's Visitation of New Mexico, 1760," New Mexico Historical Review 28, 3 (1953): 198; Riley and Manson, "The Cibola-Tiguex Route," 350; Spicer, Cycles of Conquest, 200, 426.
(45) Hammond and Rey, Rediscovery of New Mexico, 71, 94, 98, 112, 127-138, 280,285,288; Kessell, Kiva, Cross & Crown, 38, 42; Simmons, The Last Conquistador, 118. Whether or not lead was fired during the discharge of arquebuses for ceremonial or awe-inspiring purposes remains a question. Spanish art historian Pablo Martín Gómez described the process of loading an arquebus as including "some firm strokes with the ramrod to compact the mass of powder, wad and ball" before priming the exterior firing mechanism to make the weapon ready to discharge. Martín Gómez suggested that arquebuses were prepared as such for immediate use, but that if the shooter elected to delay his discharge, he would cover the firing mechanism "so that the devil could not ignite the gunpowder" [so that the arquebus could not fire by mistake]. This procedure shows that lead was routinely tapped into the powder and wadding, but offers no evidence that this procedure was followed during ceremony or exhibition. (Pablo Martín Gómez, Hombres y Armas en la Conquista de México 1518-1521 (Madrid, España: Almena Ediciones, 2001) 93, 171, Lámina 8.
(46) Hammond and Rey, Don Juan de Oñate, 144, 225, 311; Jackson, Following the Royal Road, 126 map, 133.
(47) Hammond and Rey, Don Juan de Oñate, 238-239, 242, 252, 259, 271, 276-277, 282, 566.
(48) Jonathan E. Damp, The Battle of Hawikku, Research Series 13, Report no. 884 (Zuni, NM: Zuni Cultural Resource Enterprise, 2005): 52; Brasher, "The Red House Camp," 37-39.
(49) Hammond and Rey, Don Juan de Oñate, 398-405, 746-760.
(50) Alfred Barnaby Thomas, "Spanish Exploration of Oklahoma," Chronicles of Oklahoma 6, 2 (1928): maps.
(51) Hammond and Rey, Rediscovery of New Mexico, 8, 142, 179, 217, 226, 299; Hammond and Rey, Don Juan de Oñate, 103, 107-108, 220-223.
(52) Hammond and Rey, Rediscovery of New Mexico, 217; Hammond and Rey, Don Juan de Oñate, 221-222; Kathleen Deagan, Artifacts of the Spanish Colonies of Florida and the Caribbean, 1500-1800, Vol. 2: Portable Personal Possessions (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002) 143-144, 162-183.
(53) Brasher, “The Chichilticale Camp," 453; Francis Roland Gagné, Jr., "Spanish Crossbow Boltheads of Sixteenth Century North America: A Comparative Analysis" (master's thesis, Wichita State University, 1997): 3-4; Flint, e-mail messages to author, 5-6 March 2010; Flint, “The Pattern of Coronado Expedition Material Culture," (master's thesis, New Mexico Highlands University, 1992); Charles Wilson Hackett, Historical Documents Relating to New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya, and Approaches Thereto, to 1773, Vol. 1 (Washington, D. C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1923) 280, 282; Harold L. Peterson, Arms and Armor in Colonial America 1526-1783 (New York: Bramhall House, 1956) 7; Hammond and Rey, Don Juan de Oñate, 11-12; Haring, Trade and Navigation, 274-75.
(54) Flint, e-mail message to author, 21 August 2009; Brasher, "The Chichilticale Camp," 435; Anonymous Narrative, "Traslado de las Nuevas, 1540," in Documents of the Coronado Expedition, 1539-1542, Flint and Flint, 294; I have interpreted Julian calendar dates for campsites of the Following Army. I based the 8 October 1540 date on Castañeda's claim of the Army's departure from Sonora in "middle September." (Brasher, "The Red House Camp," 62 note 74.) For the Following Army's length of stay in Cíbola see Castañeda, "Relación," 455.
(55) Richard Flint, e-mail message to author, 21 August 2009. I based the departure date from Hawikku on the presence of the expedition at the Río Frío on 9 April 1542. (Brasher, "The Red House Camp," 62, note 74.)
(56) Riley, Puaray and Coronado's Tiguex, 199-200; Riley, e-mail message to author, 26 November 2009.
(57) Brasher, "Spanish Lead Shot," 80.
(58) A detailed discussion of the exploration model and the predicted campsites is included in Nugent Brasher, “The Coronado Exploration Program: A Narrative of the Search for the Captain General,” in Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint, eds., The Latest Word from 1540: People, Places, and Portrayals of the Coronado Expedition (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, forthcoming October 2011), 229–61. Three hundred five years after Coronado departed Hidden Valley on his return to Mexico, Lt. William H. Emory conducted a military reconnaissance of the Rio Gila. My interpretation of his map shows him to be at Hidden Valley on 21 October 1847. Emory, who was following the Río Gila, crossed from the north side to the south side of the river at that spot because it was the only passage between box canyons. (William H. Emory, "Military Reconnaissance of the Arkansas Rio del Norte and Rio Gila," (Washington, Wendell and Van Benthuysen, 1848). I can announce that the team has discovered at the Slash SI Ranch on Big Dry Creek, New Mexico a ball of Spanish lead, an artifact of Spanish lead, and several metal artifacts consistent in form, function and craftsmanship with the sixteenth-century. We consider this a discovery of a third Coronado Expedition campsite. Details of this discovery will be presented in an article published in a future issue of the New Mexico Historical Review.